Synthesis and characterization of meso-porous Au-modified SnO2 fibers using natural silk with enhanced sensitivity for n-butanol

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 31; no. 11; pp. 8220 - 8229
• Main Authors: Zhang, Gaoyu, Sang, Laifa, Xu, Guogang, Dou, Yajie, Wang, Xinzhen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Butanol; Catalytic activity; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Detection; Fibers; Gas sensors; Gold; Materials Science; Nanoparticles; Optical and Electronic Materials; Selectivity; Sensitivity enhancement; Silk; Surface area; Tin dioxide
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-020-03357-z

Meso-porous SnO 2 fibers were prepared via hydrothermal method, and natural silk was used as bio-template. Au nanoparticles served as the sensitizer were prepared on the surface of these SnO 2 fibers to further enhance the properties of gas sensing. Results show that these Au-modified products presented high surface area of 168.66 m 2 /g and meso-porous structure, and these fibers were composed of nanosized SnO 2 and Au particles with the size of about 7 ± 0.5 nm and 5 ± 0.5 nm, respectively. Gas sensing properties of these synthesized pristine products and Au-loaded fibers were investigated. Results show that these Au-modified SnO 2 fibers exhibited remarkably enhanced sensing performance to n -butanol with high response, good selectivity and good stability. The gas sensing mechanism was discussed from the effects of meso-porous structure, high surface area and Au nanoparticle catalytic activity.