Development of high-performance fiber optic gas sensor based rice-like CeO₂/MWCNT nanocomposite synthesized by facile hydrothermal route

In this report, a novel rice like CeO₂/MWCNTs nanocomposite was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal route and explore the systematic investigation of the structural, morphological and elemental composition by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive spectra (EDS), N₂ adsorption-desorption and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) analysis. XRD and FESEM studies reveal that cubic structure with an average particle size of 40–50 and 100–120 nm, which is homogeneously dispersed on the MWCNT. Impressively, CeO₂/MWCNT showed a huge surface area of 108 m²/g and pore size 12.71 nm. The sensing characteristics were done using ammonia and ethanol gases with various concentrations (0–500 ppm) using fiber optic clad modified technique. The results demonstrate that CeO₂/MWCNT deliver high sensitivity (78/counts/ppm), rapid response (17 s) and recovery time (9 s) towards ethanol gas.