Microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis of shape-controlled CoFe2O4 nanoparticles for acetone sensor

Acetone sensor is very important to human health. However high sensitivity to trace acetone and low working temperature are highly required. In this work, we report a facile method for the preparation of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with a small size of 10 nm. The CoFe2O4 exhibited high sensitivity to acetone. Furthermore, CoFe2O4 nanoparticles fabricated through microwave-assisted solvothermal method have higher sensitive property than that synthesized by solvothermal method. Such outstanding acetone gas sensing property might be attributed to its grain size, surface adsorbed oxygen, specific surface area, structure characteristic of spinel ferrites and the possible sensing mechanism is also discussed. •CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by microwave-assisted solvothermal method.•The size of CoFe2O4 particle was uniformly controlled less than 10 nm.•The sensors displayed high sensitivity and selectivity to acetone gas.•The gas sensing mechanism of the nanostructures is discussed.