Hematite nanostructures: Morphology-mediated liquefied petroleum gas sensors

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sensors of hematite nanostructures viz. nanoparticles, nanoparticle-chains and nanorods, chemically synthesized from iron nitrate, sulfate and chloride precursors, respectively, in presence of urea as pH regulating agent are explored. These nanostructures were examined for their structures and morphologies. The Hematite morphology has an impact on crystal structure, Raman shift and charge transfer resistance value. On the basis of results presented herein, we proposed an importance of hematite nanostructures as a sensing material for the LPG sensors. Superior LPG sensor sensitivity of nanoparticles-chains (77.89%) over nanoparticles (68%) and nanorods (58.80%) at 1000 ppm LPG gas levels are imply that the hematite nanostructure (surface area) plays an important role in mediating charge transfer reaction.