Increasing the Surface Activity of 2D Ultrathin Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> by Indium Doping for TEA Sensing
Tianrun Zheng, Yi Lu, Yilin Wang, Hong Zhou, Kang Yang, Mingxue Zhang, Yueying Liu, Fengmin Liu, Geyu Lu
Abstract
Optimizing and improving the surface activity of Co 3 O 4 sensing materials are crucial for applications in triethylamine detection. Herein, indium-doped Co 3 O 4 hollow microflowers (InCo HMfs), assembled from ultrathin nanosheets, were prepared via a hydrolysis reaction. Three distinct crystal facets─{1 1 0}, {1 1 1}, and {0 0 1}─were observed in 2-InCo HMfs. Results from TEM, XPS, and XAS characterization show that the increase of Co 2+ content induced by indium doping promotes the formation of highly active crystal planes in Co 3 O 4 . DFT calculations revealed the reasons for the improvement in the gas sensing performance of 2-InCo HMfs and the multiple effects of In ions. Our dual strategy of doping with indium and hydrolysis markedly improved the intrinsic TEA sensing performance of Co 3 O 4, offering a novel avenue for designing high-performance TEA sensors.