Silver vanadate nanobelts: a highly sensitive material towards organic amines

One-dimensional silver vanadate (Ag2V4O11) nanostructures have been prepared by a facile hydrothermal method with no any additives under mild conditions. The pertinent variables for generating such nanostructures were investigated, and found that the composition and crystallinity of Ag2V4O11 could be controlled, e.g., by adjusting solution pH (pH = 1) benefiting for the crystallinity of Ag2V4O11 nanobelts. These nanostructures have high surface-to-volume ratios and could be explored for gas sensing materials. The gas sensing performances of such nanomaterials were tested, and found that the Ag2V4O11 nanobelts showed a relatively high sensitivity towards amine(s), with a low detection limit (5 ppm) and quite good selectivity of amines to ammonia at an optimized working temperature of 260 degrees celcius. The possible sensing mechanism was finally discussed. This study may offer a promising approach to prepare sensing materials towards detecting and monitoring organic amines for practice applications.