Synthesis of flower-like porous ZnO and their ultrahigh acetone sensing properties

• Published in: Journal of porous materials Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 463 - 468
• Main Authors: Wang, Xuesong, Li, Yu, Liu, Li, Wang, Lianyuan, Wang, Han, Guo, Xuexin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acetone; Catalysis; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystal structure; Detection; Ethanol; Ethyl alcohol; Flakes; Hydrothermal crystal growth; Low concentrations; Morphology; Operating temperature; Physical Chemistry; Porous materials; Properties (attributes); Scanning electron microscopy; Synthesis; X-ray diffraction; Zinc oxide; Flower-like porous ZnO; Sensors; Acetone
• ISSN: 1380-2224; 1573-4854
• DOI: 10.1007/s10934-016-0281-1

Flower-like porous ZnO was successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method followed by calcination. The morphologies of the as-prepared materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the crystal structures were determined by X-ray diffraction. It can be seen in SEM images that each flower-like ZnO unit is composed of randomly arranged ZnO thin flakes which makes the materials extremely porous. Meanwhile, there are numerous through-holes distributed on the surface of ZnO flakes. The gas-sensing properties of the as-prepared materials were investigated, and the results indicate the ultrahigh sensing properties of flower-like porous ZnO to acetone. The response of flower-like porous ZnO sensors to 50 ppm acetone is about 97.8 at the optimum operating temperature of 280 °C. The response and recovery times to 50 ppm acetone are about 2 and 23 s, respectively. Moreover, even at low concentrations of 0.25, 1 and 10 ppm acetone high responses can be observed with the values of 6.7, 15.8 and 30.1. In addition, the as-synthesized flower-like ZnO shows excellent selectivity to acetone and the response to 50 ppm acetone (97.8) is about 4.43 times larger than ethanol (22.1) at the same concentration, which can successfully distinguish acetone and ethanol.