Improvement of gas sensing performance for tin dioxide sensor through construction of nanostructures

Rui Zhang; Ziwei Xu; Tingting Zhou; Teng Fei; Rui Wang; Tong Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.09.073

Improvement of gas sensing performance for tin dioxide sensor through construction of nanostructures

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Dec 1:557:673-682. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.09.073. Epub 2019 Sep 20.

Authors

Rui Zhang¹, Ziwei Xu¹, Tingting Zhou¹, Teng Fei², Rui Wang³, Tong Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai 200050, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China. Electronic address: ruiwang@jlu.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China. Electronic address: zhangtong@jlu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31563058
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.09.073

Abstract

Rational design of tin dioxide (SnO₂) nanomaterials with superior architectures and outstanding physicochemical capabilities is highly desirable for gas sensors. Here, three SnO₂ nanostructures with different morphologies, particles, core-shell spheres and facet-exposed crystals, are developed and further applied to track amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Porous SnO₂ core-in-hollow-shell sphere-based sensors exhibited enhanced sensing properties, especially a higher sensitivity than SnO₂ particles. The monocrystalline SnO₂ single-crystal-based sensor, which has dominant exposed (1 1 0) and (2 2 1) facets, also showed a superior sensing performance, especially faster response/recovery speed than the SnO₂ particle-based sensor. The enhanced gas-sensing properties are mainly ascribed to the structural sensitization, and these results further confirm that the SnO₂ core-shell structure and exposed single crystal exposed with high energy can provide more numerous active sites for gas molecule adsorption than that of SnO₂ particles.

Keywords: Crystal facet; Gas sensor; Porous surface; Tin oxide; VOC.