High-Energy Faceted Sno?-Coated Tio? Nanobelt Heterostructure for Near-Ambient Temperature-Responsive Ethanol Sensor

By Chen, Guohui; Ji, Shaozheng; Li, Haidong; Kang, Xueliang; Chang, Sujie; Wang, Yana; Yu, Guangwei; Lu, Jianren; Claverie, Jerome; Sang, Yuanhua & Liu, Hong
Published in ACS Applied Materials \& Interfaces NULL 2015

Abstract

A Sno? gas sensor was prepared by a two-step oxidation process whereby a Sn(II) precursor was partially oxidized by a hydrothermal process and the resulting Sn3O? nanoplates were thermally oxidized to yield Sno? nanoplates. The Sno? sensor was selective and responsive toward ethanol at a temperature as low as 43 °C. This low sensing temperature stems from the rapid charge transport within Sno? and from the presence of high-energy (001) facets available for oxygen chemisorption. Sno?/Tio? nanobelt heterostructures were fabricated by a similar two-step process in which Tio? nanobelts acted as support for the epitaxial growth of intermediate Sn3O?. At temperatures ranging from 43 to 276 °C, the response of these branched nanobelts is more than double the response of Sno? for ethanol detection. Our observations demonstrate the potential of low-cost Sno?-based sensors with controlled morphology and reactive facets for detecting gases around room temperature.

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