Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Results in Physics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rinp
Microarticle
One pot synthesis of hierarchical and porous ZnSnO
3
nanocubes and gas
sensing properties to formaldehyde
Weiwei Guo
⁎
, Bangyu Zhao, Min Fu, Chongjun Wang, Rong Peng
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Catalysis and New Environmental Materials, College of Environment and Resources, Chongqing Technology and Business University,
Chongqing 400067, People’s Republic of China
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
ZnSnO
3
Hierarchical
Porous materials
Sensors
Formaldehyde
ABSTRACT
The hierarchical and porous nanomaterials usually present excellently physicochemical functions. Here, we
report the successful preparation of three different ZnSnO
3
nanocubes using different surfactant by one-pot
hydrothermal method. The as-prepared hierarchical and porous ZnSnO
3
nanocube was assisted by NaF, which
exhibited the largest specific surface area and the maximum quantity of oxygen vacancy. Moreover, the film
sensor made of hierarchical and porous ZnSnO
3
nanocubes showed the most superior gas sensing performance to
formaldehyde compared with that of the other two nanocubes. This unique hierarchical and porous ZnSnO
3
nanocubes hold substantial promise to be a potential gas-sensing material to detect formaldehyde.
Introduction
Nowadays, the rational synthesis of metal semiconductor oxides
(MOS) with various structures are gradually arousing people’s concern,
because the physicochemical functions of MOS are strongly associated
with their nano/microstructures [1]. Among various nano/micro-
structures, the hierarchical and porous structures have attracted a
considerable interest due to their features of large specific surface area,
low density, and good air permeability that are preferable for a lot of
practical applications, especially for sensor device [2,3]. So far, the
most conventional method for preparing hierarchical and porous ma-
terial is using template molecules (e.g., organic framework, block co-
polymers) or silica into the synthetic system [4,5]. Nevertheless, these
methods usually involve cumbersome experiment process, complex
equipment, or expensive templates, which possibly result in the en-
vironmental pollution and additional costs [6,7]. Therefore, it is of
immediate significance to explore a simple, mild, and economical route
for the one-pot synthesis of hierarchical and porous structures.
Among various MOS, zinc stannate (ZnSnO
3
) is a unique ternary
metal oxide material, which exhibits excellent physicochemical func-
tions and good gas sensing performance to many toxic pollutant gases
[8–10]. However, the gas sensing properties of the common ZnSnO
3
nanoparticles are not satisfactory for the sensor application (e.g., high
working temperature, low gas response, long response-recovery time)
[11–13]. So it is desirable to prepare hierarchical and porous ZnSnO
3
structures to improve its gas sensing performance.
Recently, ZnSnO
3
nanostructures with various morphologies have
been synthesized by different synthesis methods. For instance, Bing
et al. prepared ZnSnO
3
hollow microspheres with a hierarchical struc-
ture composed of small nanorods by a facile hydrothermal method with
no templates, the as-prepared ZnSnO
3
hollow microspheres exhibited
improved sensing performances to ethanol with short response-re-
covery time of 0.9 s and 1.2 s [10]. Zeng et al. synthesized hierarchical
ZnSnO
3
nanocages via the capping reagent of HMT (hexamethylenete-
tramine) assisted hydrothermal process and it presented excellent gas
sensing performance to formaldehyde and ethanol [11]. Zhang et al.
prepared the hollow ZnSnO
3
polyhedral structures using a self-tem-
plating method and the gas response of the hollow ZnSnO
3
polyhedral
exhibited gas response as high as 49.5–100 ppm ethanol gas at 320 °C
[12]. Singh et al. synthesized the hierarchical flowerlike ZnSnO
3
ar-
chitectures using sol–gel spin coating process and its gas response to
LPG gas was as high as 143 [13]. However, as far as I know, there are
few reports on the synthesis of ZnSnO
3
cubes with hierarchical and
porous structure, and the hierarchical and porous ZnSnO
3
cubes used as
gas sensing material is rarely reported.
Here, we report a technically simple and flexible way: the use of a
template-free hydrothermal method to synthesis the hierarchical and
porous ZnSnO
3
nanocubes. Such a unique hierarchical and porous
morphology exhibited large specific surface area and abundant oxygen
vacancies. Our results demonstrate that the hierarchical and porous
ZnSnO
3
nanocubes presented excellent gas sensing properties to for-
maldehyde gas, which may be used as a potential gas sensing material
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2019.102606
Received 3 December 2018; Received in revised form 18 August 2019; Accepted 18 August 2019
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: gwctbu@163.com (W. Guo).
Results in Physics 15 (2019) 102606
Available online 22 August 2019
2211-3797/ © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).
T