Sensors and Actuators B 190 (2014) 2531

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Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/snb

Investigation on electrical transport, CO sensing characteristics and

mechanism for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 sensors
Changmin Shi, Hongwei Qin, Ming Zhao, Xiaofeng Wang, Ling Li, Jifan Hu
School of Physics, State Key Laboratory for Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 13 February 2013
Received in revised form 24 July 2013
Accepted 6 August 2013
Available online 17 August 2013
Keywords:
Gas sensor
Carbon monoxide
Perovskite
XPS

a b s t r a c t
The appropriate doping of Ca in nanocrystalline LaFeO3 not only reduces the electrical resistance, but also
enhances the sensing response. A minimum of resistance for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 (x = 00.35)
occurs at about x = 0.3 with a value of Fe4+ /Fe3+ 1. The electrical conduction of La1x Cax FeO3 (x = 00.35)
can be well described by the mechanism of small polaron hopping. Results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) show that the proportion of adsorbed oxygen Oads enhances monotonously with Ca doping
from x = 00.35. However, there exists an optimal Ca content (about x = 0.2) for obtaining highest response
to 200 ppm CO among La1x Cax FeO3 -based sensors (0x0.35). Such results indicate that some parts of
adsorbed oxygen species do not effectively release their electrons to the surface of La1x Cax FeO3 at higher
Ca dopants. The gas sensing response to CO for La1x Cax FeO3 sensors depends not only upon the amount
of adsorbed oxygen on grain surfaces of sensors, but also upon the desorption capabilities of adsorbed
oxygen species through reacting with CO.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The carbon monoxide (CO) is a kind of colorless, tasteless,
widespread and toxic gas. This highly toxic gas can attach to
the hemoglobin, which damages the human body by producing a
reduction in cellular respiration [1]. Therefore, it is becoming an
urgent subject to detect CO gas in atmosphere air accurately and
rapidly. The gas sensors based on the rare earth perovskite oxides
(such as LaFeO3 ) have attracted considerable interests, mainly due
to their high sensitivity and selectivity to ethanol, nitrogen oxide,
acetone, hydrocarbon and O3 [219]. However, the resistance of
LaFeO3 is too large, which brings some troubles in design of circuit for gas sensors [10]. The partial substitution of La by lower
valent-cation elements such as Ca, Ba, Sr and Pb in LaFeO3 could
reduce the resistance [1012,2022]. With an increase of doping
content x, the resistance of La1x Ax FeO3 (A = Ca, Ba, Sr and Pb)
undergoes a minimum. Usually, the alkali element-doping concentration dependence of resistance can be explained with the
processes of electrical valence and oxygen vacancy compensations.
However, it is still not able to describe at which composition x the
resistance of La1x Ax FeO3 has a minimum.
It is well known that oxygen adsorption is very important for
gas sensing of semiconductor sensors [1,11]. For sensors based on

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 531 88361560; fax: +86 531 88377031.
E-mail addresses: hu-jf@vip.163.com, hujf@sdu.edu.cn (J. Hu).
0925-4005/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2013.08.029

p-type LaFeO3 nanocrystalline powders, oxygen molecules adsorb

on the surfaces of nanograins and capture electrons from LaFeO3 ,
leading to a decrease of resistance of p-type LaFeO3 . Ab initio calculation [23] indicated that oxygen molecule prefers to adsorb
on Fe site on the (0 1 0) surface of LaFeO3 . The calculated density
isosurface clearly shows charge transfer from the Fe ion into the
adsorbed oxygen g orbital. In fact, LaFeO3 can also be used to
detect CO [1,2428], but the response is relative weak. For example, the response S = RCO /Rair to 200 ppm CO is about 1.8 at 250 C
for LaFeO3 lm with Pt electrodes [25]. Further ab initio calculation
[29] conrmed the CO-sensing mechanism that when CO is introduced, the oxygen pre-adsorbed on LaFeO3 (0 1 0) surface reacts
with CO to form CO2 and release electrons to LaFeO3 . It has been
found that the doping of low valent-cation elements (such as Ba
and Pb) in LaFeO3 at low dopants also enhance sensing response to
some gases. Considering that the doping of Ba in LaFeO3 decrease
the average grain size, it was previously suggested that the smaller
grains of Ba-doped LaFeO3 could adsorb larger amount of oxygen
molecules, leading to a larger response [21]. However, it is still a
mystery why there exists an optimum doping concentration for
obtaining larger response in La1x (Ba, Pb)x FeO3 . It has been also
found that the response value is about 1.9 for La0.68 Pb0.32 FeO3 to
200 ppm CO [24]. But the systematic study on the doping concentration dependence of CO sensing properties for La1x Ax FeO3 is still
needed. In the present work, we experimentally investigated the
electrical conduction, oxygen adsorption and CO sensing mechanism of La1x Cax FeO3 nanocrystalline powders.

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C. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 190 (2014) 2531

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of (a) sensing tube structure and (b) testing principle.

2. Experimental

Fig. 2. X-ray diffraction patterns of La1x Cax FeO3 annealed at 800 C with (a) x = 0,
(b) x = 0.1, (c) x = 0.2, (d) x = 0.3 and (e) x = 0.35.

2.1. Preparation of powders

La1x Cax FeO3 powders were prepared by a sol-gel method.
Firstly, appropriate amount of La(NO3 )3 , Ca(NO3 )2 , Fe(NO3 )3 9H2 O
and citric acid (all analytically pure) were dissolved in ion-free
water at 70 C. The polyethylene glycol (PEG) was added into the
mixed solution under stirring at 70 C to obtain the sol and the sol
was dried to form gel. Then, the gel pieces were ground to form ne
powders. Finally, the ne powders were annealed at 800 C for 2 h
in an oven.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Crystal phase composition and structure of La1x Cax FeO3
powders

X-ray diffraction patterns of the obtained La1x Cax FeO3 powders were measured by an X-ray diffractometer (D8 Advance) using
CuK radiation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements for La1x Cax FeO3 nanocrystalline powders were performed
with monochromated AlK radiation using an X-ray photoelectron
spectrometer (ESCALAB 250).

Fig. 2 shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of La1x Cax FeO3

annealed at 800 C. The samples have a single phase with
orthorhombic perovskite structure (space group Pnma-62). Their
lattice parameters and average grain sizes (D) calculated from the
X-ray pattern are summarized in Table 1. The unit cell volume
became smaller with an increase of x value, since the radius of Ca2+
(100pm) ions is smaller than that of La3+ (103.2 pm) ion. The average grain sizes calculated using Scherrers equation [32] decreases
with Ca doping, demonstrating that the Ca2+ doping suppresses
the growth of grain size during the high temperature synthesis.
The small grain size with large specic surface area would provide
more adsorption site for oxygen molecules.

2.3. Fabrication and measurements of sensors

3.2. Electrical properties

The prepared La1x Cax FeO3 powders were mixed with some
terpineol and then ground into pastes. The pastes were packed
into a ceramic tube with two electrodes installed at each end. The
tube was about 8 mm in length, 5 mm in external diameter, and
3 mm in internal diameter. Then the tube lled with pastes was
annealed at 400 C for 2 h. During this annealing process, the terpineol burns. The burning of organic binder brings about the porosity
of the sensing material, and the target gas could touch sensing
materials inside of tube through these pores. The schematic gure representing the sensing tube structure is shown in Fig. 1a. The
sensor includes a sensing tube and an external heating coil. This
kind of sensor structure has been reported in some previous papers
[11,12,21,24,30,31]. The resistance of such sensors is relative small,
due to the larger cross sectional area of the resistance for the sensor. The schematic diagram of the testing principle [30] is shown in
Fig. 1b. The voltage Vh is the heating voltage supplied to the coils,
while the circuit voltage Vc is supplied across the sensors and the
load resistor (RL ) connected in series. For deriving the resistance of
the sensor, the signal voltage Vout across the load resistor is measured by a digital voltmeter HB-408. The gas sensing response in the
experiment is dened as S = Rg /Ra , where Rg is the resistance measured under a working circumstance, while Ra is the resistance in
air. CO sensing properties of nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 sensors
were measured below 360 C.

The design of circuit for gas sensors requires that the resistance
of sensor is appropriate lower. However, the resistance of LaFeO3
is too large, which brings some troubles in design of circuit. Thus, it
is important to decrease the resistance for applications of LaFeO3 type sensors. The temperature dependence of the resistance in air
for La1x Cax FeO3 sensors are shown in Fig. 3. The resistance of
all samples decreases with an increase of temperature. With an
increase of Ca dopants, the resistance drops at rst, undergoes a
minimum at x = 0.3, and nally increases.
When La3+ in LaFeO3 is replaced by Ca2+ ions, using KrgerVink
defect notation [33], holes are produced by the ionization of [CaxLa ]:

2.2. Characteristics of powders

CaxLa CaLa + h

(1)

Table 1
Lattice parameters and average grain size for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 .
x

a ()

b ()

c ()

V (3 )

D (nm)

0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.35

5.5555
5.5348
5.5121
5.5005
5.4802

5.5660
5.5516
5.5312
5.5156
5.5156

7.8888
7.8660
7.8372
7.8116
7.8024

244
242
239
237
212

34.5
25.1
24.3
22.2
17.5

C. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 190 (2014) 2531

27

At low Ca concentration, process of electrical valence compensation

is dominated. More Fe4+ ions occur due to the electrical valence
compensation, leading to the enhancement of conductance (or the
reduction of resistivity).
The (b) process is oxygen vacancy compensation. Oxygen vacancies denoted by  provide some electrons in the compound, which
compensate part of holes and preferring a decrease of conductivity
(or an increase of resistance). At high Ca concentration, the process
of oxygen vacancy compensation is dominated. The (c) process is
the compound compensation, which occurs in real substituted perovskite oxides. As shown in Fig. 4, for the La1x Cax FeO3 (x = 0.1, 0.2,
0.3 and 0.35), the resistance R ts best to Holsteins model of small
polaron hopping conduction [3436]:
R(T ) = R0 T exp

Fig. 3. The temperature dependences of the resistances in air for nanocrystalline

La1x Cax FeO3 sensors.

Since the doping amount of Ca2+ -doped is considerable, the

concentration of holes in La1x Cax FeO3 would increase. The compensation processes would occur for La1x Cax FeO3 :
(a)
(b)
(c)

La3+
Cax
1x





2+



4+

Fe3+
Fex
1x

O3

La3+
Ca2+
Fe O3x/2 x/2
x
1x

La3+
Ca2+
x
1x



Fe3+
Fe4+
y
1y



(2)

O3(xy)/2 (xy)/2

(3)

(4)

The (a) process is electrical valence compensation. Some Fe4+ ions

(Fe holes) should occur in order to maintain the charge neutrality. The conducting transport is controlled by the holes, as a result
of thermally activated jumps of holes along the Fe4+ O2 Fe3+
chains. This process can also be described as:
Fe3+ Fe4+ + e

(5)

E 
a
kB T

(6)

in the measurement range of temperature from 140 C to 360 C

(see Fig. 4), where Ea is activation energy, kB is the Boltzmann
constant.
For LaFeO3 , its charge carriers are holes produced by the ionizax ] [37,38]:
tion of the La3+ cation vacancy defect [VLa


x
VLa
VLa + 3h

(7)

As shown in Fig. 5, for LaFeO3 nanocrystalline powders prepared

by Liu et al. [31], Khetre et al. [39], Murade et al. [40] and this work,
the resistance R (or resistivity ) also ts well to the model of small
polaron hopping conduction, described by Eq. (6). In fact, many
research works have showed that electronic conduction in LaFeO3
is due to small polarons hopping [4143].
According to above discussion, we understand that the competition of electrical valence and oxygen vacancy-compensation
processes results in a minimum of resistance. However, at which
Ca composition does a minimum of resistance for La1x Cax FeO3
occur? In the following we demonstrate that a minimum of resistance for La1x Cax FeO3 occur at the composition with the value of
Fe4+ /Fe3+ close to 1. Fig. 6 shows Fe2p XPS spectra for nanocrydstalline La1x Cax FeO3 . The doublet peaks located at about 710 eV
and 724 eV could be assigned to 2p3/2 and 2p1/2 states of Fe3+ ,
meanwhile the doublet peaks located at about 712 eV and 726 eV

Fig. 4. ln[R/T] vs. 1000/T curves for La1x Cax FeO3 sensors with (a) x = 0.1, (b) x = 0.2, (c) x = 0.3 and (d) x = 0.35.

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C. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 190 (2014) 2531

Fig. 8. The operating temperature dependence of the response to 200 ppm CO for
nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 sensors.
Fig. 5. (a) ln[/T] and (b) ln[R/T] vs. 1000/T curves for LaFeO3 sensors.

Fig. 6. The Fe2p XPS for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 with (a) x = 0, (b) x = 0.1, (c)
x = 0.2, (d) x = 0.3 and (e) x = 0.35.

could be assigned to 2p3/2 and 2p1/2 states of Fe4+ [44]. The Ca

composition dependence of molar ratio Fe4+ /Fe3+ for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 is shown in Fig. 7. The value of molar ratio
Fe4+ /Fe3+ is 0.41, 0.59, 0.77, 0.93, 0.80 for x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.35,
respectively. With an increase of Ca content in nanocrystalline

La1x Cax FeO3 , there is a peak value (0.931) of Fe4+ /Fe3+ at x = 0.3,
where a maximum of electrical conductance occurs. Such result is
consistent with the conduction mechanism of small polaron hopping between Fe4+ and Fe3+ in the system. Considering that all Fe
ions belong to Fe4+ in ideal stoichiometric bulk CaFeO3 , it seems
that amount of Fe4+ should increases with an increase of Ca up to
x = 1 in stoichiometric bulk La1x Cax FeO3 , and the composition with
Fe4+ /Fe3+ = 1 should occur at x = 0.5 if only electrical valence compensation occurs. However, oxygen vacancies frequently appear
for real La1x Cax FeO3 , especial nanocrystalline case. In our experiment, we found a value of Fe4+ /Fe3+ = 0.80 for nanocrystalline
La0.65 Ca0.35 FeO3 (x = 0.35). At high Ca2+ dopants (such as x = 0.35),
the oxygen vacancy compensation process plays a decisive role in
nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 . Oxygen vacancies can provide some
electrons, compensating part of holes. The electrons provided from
oxygen vacancy can ll in the d state of Fe4+ ions and transform it
into Fe3+ , thus reducing amount of Fe4+ /Fe3+ .
For ideally stoichiometric bulk LaFeO3 , all Fe ions belong to
Fe3+ . However, for our nanocrystalline LaFeO3 , the value of molar
ratio Fe4+ /Fe3+ is 0.41, much larger than zero. The La vacancies
in nanocrystalline LaFeO3 may induce Fe4+ , in order to maintain
the material to be charge neutrality. The oxygen adsorption may
provide another mechanism for existence of Fe4+ in nanocrystalline LaFeO3 . In general, the surface effect becomes pronounced
for nanomaterials, due to the large surfacevolume ratio. According
to ab initio calculation [23], oxygen adsorption prefers to occur at Fe
site in LaFeO3 . There is an electron transfer from Fe ion to adsorbed
oxygen. Thus, the transformation from Fe3+ to Fe4+ prefers to occur
at some Fe site. In fact, it is the coexistence of Fe3+ and Fe4+ that
results in the small polaron hopping conduction in LaFeO3 .
3.3. Gas-sensing properties and mechanism

Fig. 7. The Ca composition dependence of the molar ratio Fe4+ /Fe3+ for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 .

The operating temperature dependence of the response to

200 ppm CO for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 -based sensors is
shown in Fig. 8. With increasing operating temperature, the
response value of La1x Cax FeO3 -based sensors increase gradually,
undergoes a maximum, and then decreases again. The response S
to 200 ppm CO can reach the maximum value of 1.31 at 180 C,
1.82 at 180 C, 3.45 at 180 C, 1.54 at 160 C and 1.34 at 160 C for
x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.35, respectively. Among La1x Cax FeO3 -based
sensors, the La0.8 Ca0.2 FeO3 (x = 0.2) sensor exhibits the largest sensing response (S = 3.45) to 200 ppm CO at 180 C. As shown in
Fig. 9, the response of La0.8 Ca0.2 FeO3 at 180 C increases with an
increase of CO concentration. It has been found that the maximum
value of sensing response S to 200 ppm CO is about 1.9 at 80 C

C. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 190 (2014) 2531

Fig. 9. The CO concentration dependence of the response for nanocrystalline

La0.8 Ca0.2 FeO3 sensor at 180 C.

250 C

for La0.68 Pb0.32 FeO3 [24] and 1.8 at

for LaFeO3 lm with
Pt electrodes [25], respectively. It has been further pointed that
when exposed to 100 ppm CO, La0.90.1 FeO3 (here  represents La
vacancy) nanocrystalline powders exhibits two response peaks in
the response vs. temperature curve. One peak is at about 100 C and
another one is at about 260 C [45]. The later peak in response may
be connected with the effect of La vacancies.
With increasing temperature in air, the oxygen species adsorbed
on the surface of La1x Cax FeO3 undergoes the following reactions:
O2(gas) O2(ads)

(8)

O2(ads) + e O
2(ads)

(9)

+ e 2O
O
2(ads)
(ads)

(10)

+ e O2
O
(ads)
(ads)

(11)

The equilibriums shift to the right with an increase of operating

temperature. The oxygen captures electrons from La1x Cax FeO3 ,
leading to an increase of hole (or Fe4+ ions) concentration. As a
consequence, the barrier height and resistance of the p-type sensors
decreases. When CO gas is introduced, the following reaction may
happen [46]:
CO + On
CO2 + ne
ads

(12)

The electrons trapped by the adsorptive oxygen species are released

to semiconductor, leading to a decrease of holes (or Fe4+ ions), thus
an increase in resistance of semiconductor sensor. The ab initio calculation [29] based on the density functional theory (DFT) with the
generalized gradient approximation (GGA) conrmed this CO sensing mechanism that the O2 pre-adsorbed on LaFeO3 (0 1 0) surface
reacts with CO to form CO2 and release electrons to LaFeO3 , when
CO gas is introduced.
With technique of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the
proportion of adsorbed oxygen for the sample can be detected.
Fig. 10 shows the O1s XPS spectra for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3
with x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.35, respectively. The O1s XPS signal can
be divided into two peaks, corresponding to two kinds of oxygen in
the surface. The peak at lower binding energy corresponds to the
lattice oxygen (Olat ), whereas the peak at higher binding energy is
due to the adsorbed oxygen (Oads ) [7]. The proportion of adsorbed
oxygen Oads in the total oxygen atoms Otot on the La1x Cax FeO3 surface, Oads /Otot , can be obtained by tting the O1s XPS spectra. As
shown in Fig. 11, the quantity of Oads /Otot increases with an increase
of Ca content for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 . It means that the

29

Fig. 10. The O1s XPS for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 with (a) x = 0, (b) x = 0.1, (c)
x = 0.2, (d) x = 0.3 and (e) x = 0.35.

Fig. 11. The Ca composition dependence of the molar ratio Oads /Otot for nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 .

proportion of adsorbed oxygen Oads enhances monotonously with

increasing Ca content from x = 00.35. However, there exists an
optimal Ca content (about x = 0.2) for obtaining highest response to
200 ppm CO among those La1x Cax FeO3 -based sensors (0x0.35).
Such results indicate that some parts of adsorbed oxygen species do
not effectively release their electrons to the surface of La1x Cax FeO3
at higher Ca dopants. In other words, the high amount of adsorbed
oxygen atoms cant guarantee the large sensing response. The
sensing response of La1x Cax FeO3 at higher Ca dopants strongly
depends upon the amount of oxygen desorption from the surface
due to the reaction with CO. Maybe ab initio calculation could provide some deeper insight into sensing mechanism of Ca doped
LaFeO3 . Further investigations on this side are in progress.
4. Conclusions
In the present work, we experimentally investigate electrical transport, CO sensing characteristics and mechanism for
La1x Cax FeO3 nanocrystalline powders. We found that the temperature dependence of resistivity for La1x Cax FeO3 sensors obeys
Holsteins model of small polaron hopping conduction. With an
increase of Ca dopants, the resistance of La1x Cax FeO3 sensors
decreases at rst due to the increase of Fe4+ concentration. A minimum of resistance for La1x Cax FeO3 occur at the composition
(about x = 0.3) with the value of Fe4+ /Fe3+ 1. At high Ca2+ dopants
(such as x = 0.35), the electrons provided from oxygen vacancy

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C. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 190 (2014) 2531

induces a decrease of the amount of Fe4+ /Fe3+ . At low Ca dopants,

the increase in sensing response with an increase of Ca can be
ascribed to an enhancement of amount of oxygen adsorbed on the
surface of La1x Cax FeO3 grains. There exists an optimum doping
concentration (x = 0.2) for obtaining larger response to 200 ppm CO
among La1x Cax FeO3 sensors. However, results of XPS experiment
demonstrate that the proportion of adsorbed oxygen atoms on the
surface of nanocrystalline La1x Cax FeO3 increases with an increase
of Ca dopants. The drop in sensing response with an increase of Ca
(x > 0.2) is inconsistent with a traditional view that more adsorbed
oxygen could lead to higher response. It seems that at higher
dopants, some parts of adsorbed oxygen species do not effectively
release their electrons to the surface of La1x Cax FeO3 . The gas sensing response to reducing gas CO for La1x Cax FeO3 sensors depends
not only upon the amount of adsorbed oxygen on the grain surfaces of sensors, but also upon the capabilities of adsorbed oxygen
speccies through reacting with CO. Similar case may also occur in
nanocrystalline La1x (Ba, Pb)x FeO3 sensors.

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]
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[22]

[23]

[24]
[25]

Acknowledgments
[26]

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (50872069, 51272133, 50872074, 51072103) and
National 111 Project (B13029).

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Biographies
Shi is currently working toward the PhD degree in the eld of condensed matter
physics at the School of Physics, Shandong University. The current eld of interest
is semiconductor gas sensors.
Qin is currently a professor at the School of Physics, Shandong University. The current elds of interest are magnetism materials, multiferroics materials, functional
alloy, rare earth oxide materials, nanomaterials and gas sensors. She has published
more than 120 refereed research papers in SCI journals. She has been awarded ve
invention patents.
Zhao received his BS degree at 2007 and MS degree at 2010 from the School of
Physics, Shandong University, China. Now, He works at 54th Institute of Electric
Technology Group at Shijiazhuang.
Wang received his B.S degree from the School of Physics, Shandong University, China
in 2009. She is currently working toward the PhD degree in the eld of material

31

physics and chemistry at the School of Physics, Shandong University. The current
elds of interest are semiconductor gas sensors.
Li received her B.S degree from the School of Chemistry, Liaocheng University, China
in 2008, received her MS degree from the School of Chemistry, University of Jinan,
China in 2011. She is currently working toward the PhD degree in the eld of material
physics and chemistry at the School of Physics, Shandong University. The current
eld of interest is semiconductor gas sensors.
Hu gained his B.Sc. (July, 1985) in Physics from Shandong University, his M.Sc. (July,
1988) and Ph.D (November, 1993) from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of
Sciences. As an exchange doctoral student, he studied in Max Planck Institute fr
Metallforschung, Institut fr Physik, Stuttgart, Germany (19911993). He worked
as a post doctor in the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences from April 1994 to April 1996. He joined the Department of Physics, Shandong
University in May 1996, and became a full professor in December 1996. He was
appointed as Chang-Jiang Professor (Cheung Kong Scholar) by Chinese National
Ministry of Education in the end of 1999. He is currently the director of Institute
of Condensed Matter Physics, School of Physics at Shandong University. His current
elds of interest are magnetic materials, multiferroics materials, functional alloy,
rare earth oxide materials, nanomaterials and gas sensors. He has published more
than 260 refereed research papers in SCI journals as an author or a coauthor. He has
been awarded eight invention patents.