Studies on the gas sensing behaviour of nanosized CuNb2O6 towards ammonia, hydrogen and liquefied petroleum gas

Appreciable changes in resistance of polycrystalline nanosized CuNb2O6 upon exposure to reducing gases like hydrogen, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and ammonia in ambient atmosphere recognize the material as a gas sensor. Nanosized CuNb2O6 synthesized by thermal decomposition of an aqueous precursor solution containing copper nitrate, niobium tartrate and tri-ethanol amine (TEA), followed by calcination at 700 °C for 2 h, has been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) study, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurement. The synthesized CuNb2O6 exhibits monoclinic structure with crystallite size of 25 nm, average particle size of 25–40 nm and specific surface area of 55 m2 g−1.