Novel nanosynthesis of In2O3 and its application as a resistive gas sensor for sevoflurane anesthetic.

A novel non-aqueous sol-gel route for synthesizing pure indium oxide (In2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) using indium acetylacetonate and n-butylamine as the reactive solvent, under solvothermal conditions, is herein proposed. The samples were characterized by an advanced X-ray method, whole powder pattern modeling (WPPM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), showing the exclusive presence of pure In2O3. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was used to determine the optical band gap (Eg) of the sample. Moreover, these investigations also revealed that the In2O3 nanoparticles are quasi-spherical in shape, with a diameter of around 7 nm as prepared and 9.5 nm after thermal treatment at 250 °C. In2O3 NPs worked as highly sensitive sensing interfaces to provide resistance changes during exposure to sevoflurane, a volatile anesthetic agent used in surgical wards. The developed sensor demonstrated a good response and fast response/recovery time towards very low concentrations of sevoflurane in air, suggesting a very attractive application as a real-time monitoring analyzer in a hospital environment.

A general nonaqueous route to crystalline alkaline earth aluminate nanostructures.

A nonaqueous route based on the solvothermal reaction of alkaline earth precursors with aluminium isopropoxide in benzyl alcohol is introduced. This simple process leads to crystalline complex nanostructures of alkaline earth aluminates, which, up to now, could only be obtained by solid state reaction at temperatures above 1100 degrees C or by sol-gel and further calcination at temperatures only slightly lower ( approximately 800 degrees C). The approach appears to be rather general since under the same reaction conditions BaAl(2)O(4), CaAl(4)O(7), and SrAl(4)O(7) could be obtained. The as-synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy techniques, solid-state NMR and FT-IR spectroscopies. The reaction mechanism, which was studied as well, indicates the in-situ formation of benzoate species. These can preferentially bind to particular crystallographic facets of the aluminates via bridging bonds, thereby stabilizing the surfaces that give rise to the peculiar complex structure of the final material. In order to supplement the synthesis approach and to investigate the formation of impurity phases, pure aluminium oxide hybrid nanostructures were synthesized under similar conditions and fully characterized.