Latest ArticlesMonodispersed ZnSnO3 microspheres are successfully prepared via a facile microwave-assisted method together with subsequently calcination treatment. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) results indicate that the structure of the products shifted from crystalline to amorphous under high-temperature treatments. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and the transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations demonstrate that the as-obtained products are composed of uniform microspheres with rough surfaces and the mean diameter is measured as ~700 nm. Moreover, the morphology of ZnSnO3 microspheres can be well controlled by adjusting the ratio of Zn2+ and Sn4+. The gas sensing properties of ZnSnO3 microspheres with different ratios of Zn2+/Sn4+ are investigated. Our results indicate that the ZnSnO3 microspheres exhibit good selectivity and high sensitivity towards ethanol at the optimum working temperature of 230 ℃. When the sensor is exposed 50 ppm ethanol, the value of response is 47 and the response/recovery times are 11 s and 12 s, respectively.
Acetone is an important industrial raw material as well as biomarker in medical diagnosis. The detection of acetone has great significance for safety and health. However, high selectivity and low concentration (ppb level) detection remain challenges for semiconductor gas sensor. Herein, we present a novel sensitive material with bimetallic PtCu nanocrystal modified on WO3·H2O hollow spheres (HS), which shows high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, fast response/recovery speed and low limit of detection (LOD) to acetone detection. Noteworthy, the response (Ra/Rg) of WO3·H2O HS sensor increased by 9.5 times after modification with 0.02% bimetallic PtCu nanocrystals. The response of PtCu/WO3·H2O HS to 50 ppm acetone is as high as 204.9 with short response/recovery times (3.4 s/7.5 s). Finally, the gassensitivity mechanism was discussed based on gas sensitivity test results. This research will offer a new route for high efficient acetone detection.
This work reports a superhydrophobic divinylbenzene polymer with hierarchical porous structure as sensing material to modify the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to detect benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) vapor. Notably, sensing results toward toluene vapor in different relative humidities indicates that this superhydrophobic polymer has favorable toluene/water selective detection performance. Besides, the limit of detection toward toluene is lower than 1 ppm.
In this work, the two-dimensional MoS2 film was prepared by sulfuring the molybdenum atomic layer on SiO2/Si substrate. The reaction temperature, heating rate, holding time and carrier gas flow rate were investigated comprehensively. The quality of MoS2 film was characterized by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The characterization results showed that the optimum synthesis parameters were heating rate of 25 ℃/min, reaction temperature of 750 ℃, holding time of 30 min and carrier gas velocity of 100 sccm. The MoS2 gas sensor was fabricated and its gas sensing performance was tested. The test results indicated that the sensor had a good response to both reducing gas (NH3) and oxidizing gas (NO2) at room temperature. The sensitivity to 100 ppm of NO2 was 31.3%, and the response/recovery times were 4 s and 5 s, respectively. In addition, the limit of detection could be as low as 1 ppm. This work helps us to develop low power and integrable room temperature NO2 sensors.
V2O5 flower-like structures assembled by thin nanosheets were in-situ growth on ceramic tubes by hydrothermal process. The structural characterization indicates that V2O5 flower-like structures is orthogonal diamond phase, which entirely covered on the surface of ceramic tubes. TMA sensing measured results revealed that the sensor based on V2O5 flower-like structures exhibited fast reversible and response, good selectivity to TMA and good stability at 200 ℃. The good sensing performance may be ascribed to flower-like structures and directly growth sensing film on the ceramic tube without structure damage. Our works give a simple in-situ growth flower-like structures route on sensing device, which exhibits potential application for detecting trace amounts of TMA gas.
Noble metal is usually used to improve the gas sensing performance of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) due to its better catalytic properties. In this work, we reported a synthesis of Pd/ZnO nanocomposite by an in situ reduction with ascorbic acid (AA). It was found that Pd/ZnO sensor has excellent selectivity to CO and the response of the Pd/ZnO sensor towards 100 ppm CO was as high as 15 (Ra/Rg), obviously higher than that of the pristine ZnO sensor (1.4) when the working temperature is 220 ℃. Moreover, the pure ZnO sensor almost has no selectivity to CO, but the Pd/ZnO sensor has excellent selectivity to CO, which may be ascribed to the electronic sensitization of Pd. Our present results demonstrate that the Pd can significantly improve the gas-sensing performance of metal oxide semiconductor and the obtained sensor has great potential in monitoring coal mine gas.
Ordered mesoporous carbon (OMCs) FDU-15 was synthesized through an EISA (Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly) method, and the oxidized OMCs (FDU-15-COOH) were obtained by subsequent oxidation treatments in liquid phase to introduce functional groups. The samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, FT-IR and nitrogen adsorption-desorption test. The low humidity sensing performances of FDU-15 and FDU-15-COOH thin films were investigated by using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) transducer. The responses of FDU-15-COOH is higher than that of the pristine FDU-15 at very low humidity (< 729 ppmv) with high long-term stability, implying that FDU-15-COOH is a good candidate for low humidity QCM sensor.
This paper reports a high-performance H2S gas sensing material that is made of ZnO nanowires (NWs) modified by an optimal amount of ZnS to form nano-heterojunctions. Compared with the intrinsic ZnONWs, the three differently modified nano-heterostructure material ZnO-ZnS-x (x=5, 10, 15) shows significant improvement in sensing performance to H2S at the working temperatures of 100 400 ℃, especially in the low temperature range (< 300 ℃). The chemiresistive sensor with ZnO-ZnS-10 sensingmaterial exhibits the largest response signal to H2S among all the other ZnO-ZnS-x (x=5, 10, 15, 20) sensors. Its response signal to 5 ppm H2S at 150 ℃ is about 2.7 times to that of the ZnO-NWs sensor. Besides, the ZnO-ZnS-10 sensor also features satisfactory selectivity and repeatability at 150 ℃. With the technical advantage attributed to the reduction of the redesigned band gap at the interface between ZnO and ZnS, the ZnO-ZnS heterostructure sensor rather than the traditional ZnO-NWs sensor can be used for high-sensitivity application at low working temperature.
MoS2, acting as a promising gas sensing material, has shown huge potential in monitoring of toxic and harmful gases at room temperature. However, MoS2-based gas sensors still suffer from poor gas sensing performance such as poor sensitivity, long response time. Constructing the heterostructure is an effective approach to improve gas-sensing performance of MoS2. Herein, PbS@MoS2 composites synthesized by mechanical exfoliation combining with wet-chemical precipitation are used to investigate its performance in detecting NO2 at room temperature. The response value of PbS@MoS2 gas sensor against NO2 is significantly improved compared with the pure MoS2 gas sensor. At the same time, the modification with PbS also accelerates the response speed of MoS2, and the response time is almost reduced by two orders of magnitude, from hundreds of seconds to less than ten seconds. The enhanced response value and fast response time are mainly benefited from the modulation effect of NO2 to PbS@MoS2 heterostructure and the mechanically exfoliated MoS2 surface with few defects. This work can be expected to provide useful guidance for designing composite materials with excellent gas sensing properties.
Tin dioxide is important gas sensor material and has wide applications in the detection of toxic gases and volatile organic compounds. Here, we synthesized a 3D laminated structural CuO/SnO2 material possessing p-n heterostructures. The morphology and structure were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and XPS techniques and the sensing properties were investigated for the detection of triethylamine (TEA). The results indicate that 3D laminated CuO/SnO2 material, assembled by lamellae consisting of ordered nanoparticles, exhibit an enhanced sensing performance compared with SnO2, and notably, CuO/SnO2 with size less than 1 μm has obvious high selectivity in the detection of 100 ppm TEA. Particularly, it has a high response and stability to 1 and 5 ppm TEA (S is 8 and 33), and that is higher than SnO2 material, suggesting 3D laminated CuO/SnO2 is an effective candidate material served as sensor platform to detect low-concentration amines.