The effect of gamma ray and electron beam irradiation on SnO2/rGO nanopellets for gas sensing applications
Loading...
Date
2022-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. PIN - 263145
Abstract
In the present study, SnO2/rGO and Co@SnO2/rGO nanopowder have beensynthesized through a co-precipitation technique followed by the formation of nanopellets using a hydraulic press machine. The nano-pellets have been irradiated by gamma rays with doses of 30, 60, 120 and 240 kGy and with electron beams with doses of 150 kGy and 300 kGy. The developed nano-pellets have been used to investigate the sensing of CO2 gas. To evaluate the effect of γ-ray and electron beam irradiation on the structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of the irradiated nano-pellets analyzed by XRD, UV-Vis, FTIR and FESEM. The XRD results showed that the crystallite size decreased as the radiation dose increased. The OBG of the unirradiated SnO2/rGO and Co@SnO2/rGO nano-pellets has been calculated to be 3.58 eV and 3.25, respectively, by Tauc plot analysis. When the dose of gamma rays increased from 0 kGy to 240 kGy, the OBG of SnO2/rGO decreased from 3.53 eV to 3.11 eV and that of Co@SnO2/rGO from 3.25 eV to 2.64 eV. After electron beam irradiation the OBG for SnO2/rGO decreased from 3.53 eV to 3.19 eV for the 150 kGy and 300 kGy doses, respectively, and from 3.25 eV to 2.93 eV for Co@SnO2/rGO. The increase in conductivity has been detected by the I-V characteristics with increasing irradiation doses. At a temperature of 30 °C, the effects of gamma rays and EB irradiation on CO2 gas sensing have been investigated at 10 ppm, 20 ppm and 30 ppm concentrations. For 10 ppm of CO2, the sensitivity of gamma ray irradiated SnO2/rGO has been found to be increased from 1.06 to 1.25, and that of Co@SnO2/rGO found to be increased from 1.58 to 3.42. At the EB irradiation doses of 0, 150, and 300 kGy the sensitivity of SnO2/rGO increased as 1.06, 1.10 and 1.2, respectively, for 10 ppm carbon dioxide gas, while the sensitivity of Co@SnO2/rGO has been found to be 1.58, 3.25 and 5.25, respectively. The strategy presented here demonstrates that γ-ray and electron beam irradiation is a potential approach to improve the structural, optical, electrical and gas sensing properties of SnO2/rGO nano-pellets.