Polypeptide-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO for room temperature NO2 gas sensor under UV illumination

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2020.137745
• Publication Date: 2020-06-30T18:23:24Z
• Authors: Chao Feng; Fei Wen; Zhihua Ying; Lili Li; Xiaolong Zheng; Peng Zheng; Gaofeng Wang
• Keywords: Nanorod; Hydrothermal Synthesis; Repeatability

Abstract In this work, nanoflowers-like, nanoneedles-like ZnO and ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized by polypeptide-assisted hydrothermal routes. The nanostructures and morphologies of the ZnO crystals were studied through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and it was shown that the additive of polypeptides could control the morphologies. The gas sensing properties of NO2 have been investigated with the three ZnO materials, which showed that the ZnO nanorods-based sensor exhibits the highest response under 365 nm UV illumination at room temperature. Gas sensing results, towards NO2 at a range of gas concentrations (10–25 ppm), also indicated it had good linearity and repeatability.