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Ceramics International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ceramint
In situ decoration of Zn
2
SnO
4
nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide for
high performance ethanol sensor
Yanwei Li, Na Luo, Guang Sun
⁎
, Bo Zhang, Long Lin, Honghong Jin, Yan Wang
⁎
, Hari Bala,
Jianliang Cao, Zhanying Zhang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Cultivating Base for Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Inorganic Materials in University of Henan Province, Henan
Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, PR China
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Zn
2
SnO
4
Reduced graphene oxide
Nanocomposite
Gas-sensing performance
Ethanol sensor
ABSTRACT
Developing novel metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas-sensing materials with high performance has attracted
much attention in the field of gas sensor. In this work, Zn
2
SnO
4
nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide (ZTO/
RGO) nanocomposites with various contents of RGO were successfully synthesized via a solvothermal method
combined with subsequent annealing process. Through the present method, ZTO nanoparticles with the size
about 20 nm were in situ decorated on the surface of RGO nanosheets. The results of gas-sensing tests indicated
that the as-prepared ZTO/RGO showed an enhanced sensing performance to ethanol in comparison with pure
ZTO. The response of the sensor fabricated with 8ZTO/RGO (with the optimal mass ratio of ZTO:RGO = 8:1) to
100 ppm ethanol at the optimal operating temperature of 275 °C is as high as 38, which is about 6 times higher
than that of the bare ZTO sensor. Besides of high sensitivity, the 8ZTO/RGO sensor also showed impressive
selectivity and fast response/recover behavior, as well as good linearity in a relatively wide range of ethanol
concentration (5–1200 ppm). These good sensing characteristics make 8ZTO/RGO a promising candidate for
practically detecting ethanol. The gas-sensing mechanism of the composite to ethanol was also discussed in
detail.
1. Introduction
During the past decades, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) based
gas sensors have attracted much research interest in gas detection
fields, such as public and domestic safety, industrial processes, and
monitoring of air pollution, due to the merits of low production cost,
easy miniaturization, and superior ability to detect various gases [1].As
the sensor's performance relies heavily on the sensing material, many
research efforts have focused on the design and synthesis of MOS sen-
sing materials with high performance. Up to now, different MOSs have
been developed, such as ZnO [2,3], SnO
2
[4],Fe
2
O
3
[5],Zn
2
SnO
4
[6–8], etc. Through precisely controlling their particle size, shape, and
micro/nanostructure, the gas-sensing properties of these materials can
be actually improved [9–11]. While, subject to their intrinsic physical
and chemical properties, MOSs with single component are difficult to
achieve satisfied sensing performance, especially in the aspects of
sensitivity and selectivity. In order to achieve high sensing perfor-
mances, recent progress on MOS has directed to the construction of
MOS based nanocomposites. In comparison with the single-MOS
counterpart, MOS nanocomposites, benefit from the synergistic effect
between different components, are considered to be easier to get better
gas-sensing property [12– 15].
Zn
2
SnO
4
(ZTO) is an important n-type transparent semiconductor
with a band gap of 3.6 eV [16]. Due to its good thermal stability, high
chemical sensitivity, and low-visibility absorption, ZTO has been widely
studied in the fields of gas sensor [7], photocatalyst [17], solar cell
[18], and lithium batteries [19]. When applied as gas-sensing materials,
ZTO can exhibits relatively good sensing properties to some gases
[6,8,20,21]. Chen et al. synthesized the nanorods-assembled ZTO mi-
croflower via a one-pot hydrothermal route, and found that such a
hierarchical ZTO nanostructure showed good sensitivity to ethanol [6].
Zhao et al. reported the synthesis of ZTO polyhedrons via a facile hy-
drothermal method. Gas sensing test revealed that the prepared ZTO
polyhedrons gave a response of 37–100 ppm triethylamine [20].
Tharsika et al. prepared ZTO nanowires via a carbon assisted thermal
evaporation process with the help of a gold catalyst. The prepared ZTO
nanowires exhibited good ethanol sensing performance [21]. Although,
different morphological ZTO nanomaterials have been synthesized and
applied as gas sensing materials in previous reports, it is still a chal-
lenge to further improve the gas-sensing properties of ZTO, and hence
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2018.01.107
Received 8 December 2017; Received in revised form 14 January 2018; Accepted 14 January 2018
⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: mcsunguang@163.com (G. Sun), yanwang@hpu.edu.cn (Y. Wang).
Ceramics International 44 (2018) 6836–6842
Available online 19 January 2018
0272-8842/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.
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