Hydrothermal Synthesis of Various Hierarchical ZnO Nanostructures and Their Methane Sensing Properties

Sensors

Qu Zhou¹  Weigen Chen¹  Lingna Xu¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment & System Security and New Technology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China; E-Mail:

关键词: hierarchical nanostructures;    ZnO gas sensor;    growth mechanism;    methane;    sensing properties;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s130506171

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Hierarchical flower-like ZnO nanorods, net-like ZnO nanofibers and ZnO nanobulks have been successfully synthesized via a surfactant assisted hydrothemal method. The synthesized products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy, respectively. A possible growth mechanism of the various hierarchical ZnO nanostructures is discussed in detail. Gas sensors based on the as-prepared ZnO nanostructures were fabricated by screen-printing on a flat ceramic substrate. Furthermore, their gas sensing characteristics towards methane were systematically investigated. Methane is an important characteristic hydrocarbon contaminant found dissolved in power transformer oil as a result of faults. We find that the hierarchical flower-like ZnO nanorods and net-like ZnO nanofibers samples show higher gas response and lower operating temperature with rapid response-recovery time compared to those of sensors based on ZnO nanobulks. These results present a feasible way of exploring high performance sensing materials for on-site detection of characteristic fault gases dissolved in transformer oil.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.