Synthesis of monodisperse ZnO hollow six-sided pyramids and their high gas-sensing properties

Abstract Monodisperse ZnO hollow six-sided pyramids were successfully synthesized by a low-cost and simple hydrothermal method at 160 °C for 20 h without the use of any surfactant or template. The sodium citrate (Na 3 C 6 H 5 O 7 ·2H 2 O) and glycerol (C 3 H 8 O 3 ) played a pivotal role in the growth of hollow six-sided pyramid, and the possible growth mechanism was also proposed based on the experimental facts. Moreover, the gas sensor based on this structure displayed excellent gas sensing properties to ethanol at the optimum operating temperature of 240 °C. The response was about 187 and the response-recovery time was around 11 and 9 s for 200 ppm ethanol, respectively, which indicated that this structure had high sensitivity, fast response-recovery time and good selectivity to ethanol.

[1]  K. Ibrahim,et al.  Oxidation of etched Zn foil for the formation of ZnO nanostructure , 2011 .

[2]  T. Wang,et al.  One-step synthesis and highly gas-sensing properties of hierarchical Cu-doped SnO2 nanoflowers , 2015 .

[3]  Ho Won Jang,et al.  One-Dimensional Oxide Nanostructures as Gas-Sensing Materials: Review and Issues , 2010, Sensors.

[4]  Zhongchang Wang,et al.  Hollow, porous, and yttrium functionalized ZnO nanospheres with enhanced gas-sensing performances , 2013 .

[5]  Q. Li,et al.  Synthesis of ZnO hollow spheres through a bacterial template method and their gas sensing properties , 2013 .

[6]  Meihua Zhou,et al.  Improved acetone sensing properties of ZnO hollow nanofibers by single capillary electrospinning , 2011 .

[7]  Nicolae Barsan,et al.  Template-free synthesis and assembly of single-crystalline tungsten oxide nanowires and their gas-sensing properties. , 2005, Angewandte Chemie.

[8]  Shuyi Ma,et al.  Preparation of Yb-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers with an enhanced ethanol–gas sensing performance by electrospinning , 2015 .

[9]  O. Singh,et al.  Effect of pH on the morphology and gas sensing properties of ZnO nanostructures , 2012 .

[10]  T. Thongtem,et al.  Characterization and antibacterial activity of nanostructured ZnO thin films synthesized through a hydrothermal method , 2014 .

[11]  A. Habibi-Yangjeh,et al.  Simple and large scale refluxing method for preparation of Ce-doped ZnO nanostructures as highly efficient photocatalyst , 2013 .