Characterization, growth mechanism and gas sensing properties for ZnO microflowers with mesoporous nanosheets

• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-014-2382-4
• Publication Date: 2014-10-17T04:52:00Z
• Authors: Yu Zhang; Tianmo Liu; He Zhang; Wen Zeng; Fusheng Pan; Xianghe Peng
• Keywords: Characterization

Flower-like ZnO microstrucutures (ZMFs) self-assembled by nanosheets were fabricated by a simple template-free hydrothermal method, and the nanosheets were observed with a great many of mesopores. Without adding NaOH, sphere-like ZnO microstrucutures (ZMSs) which were covered by nanosheets were obtained. Subsequently, according to the characterization of SEM and TEM for ZMFs nanosheets, the possible formation mechanisms and simulation of ZMFs were discussed. The novel ZMFs presented numerous mesopores of size around 6 nm and high BET specific area (about 36.886 m2/g) which contributed to its high gas-sensing performance. In comparison with the ZMSs-based sensor, the ZMFs-based sensor displayed excellent gas-sensing performance to the ethanol gas with high sensitivity of nearly 35 at the concentration of 250 ppm.