Preparation and characterization of barium stannate: application as a liquefied petroleum gas sensor

Barium stannate, BaSnO3, an n-type semiconducting oxide with cubic perovski te structure, has been prepared by the thermal decomposition of barium carb onate (BaCO3) and tin tetrahydroxide (Sn(OH)(4)). The material was characte rized by various physical techniques such as differential thermal analysis (DTA/TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area, Fourier transform infr a-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Of its s everal applications, this material has proven to be one of the successful c andidates for the detection of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The sensor ha s a very good selectivity to detect LPG in comparison to other reducing gas es, like carbon monoxide and methane. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.