Modulation of ZnFe2O4 material growth using NiO nanoparticles for highly sensitive response to n-butanol

In this paper, NiO was used to modulate the growth of ZnFe 2 O 4 materials to achieve a highly sensitive response to n-butanol. The obtained material NZF-8 has a very high response value (129.9) for n-butanol at 100 ppm at 240 ℃, which is 22.8 times higher than the response of ordinary ZnFe 2 O 4 (5.7) at the same temperature. It is shown that the amount of nanoscale NiO moderator has a great influence on the morphology, specific surface area and gas-sensitive properties of the prepared materials. • NiO modulates ZnFe 2 O 4 into a combined octahedral and nanosheet structure. • The response of NZF-8 to n-butanol is 22.8 times higher than that of ZnFe 2 O 4 . • NZF-8 has improved selectivity relative to ZnFe 2 O 4 . • NZF-8 has 2.3 times more oxygen vacancies than zinc ferrate.