Sensors
and
Actuators
B
241
(2017)
489–497
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Sensors
and
Actuators
B:
Chemical
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/snb
Promoting
effects
of
Ag
on
In
2
O
3
nanospheres
of
sub-ppb
NO
2
detection
Bingxin
Xiao
a
,
Shanliang
Song
b
,
Pan
Wang
b
,
Qi
Zhao
a
,
Mingyan
Chuai
a
,
Mingzhe
Zhang
a,∗
a
State
Key
Laboratory
of
Superhard
Materials,
Jilin
University,
Changchun
130012,
China
b
State
Key
Laboratory
of
Supramolecular
Structure
and
Materials,
Jilin
University,
2699
Qianjin
Street,
Changchun
130012,
China
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
i
n
f
o
Article
history:
Received
11
August
2016
Received
in
revised
form
17
October
2016
Accepted
23
October
2016
Available
online
24
October
2016
Keywords:
Ag
decorated
In
2
O
3
nanospheres
Sub-ppb
NO
2
gassensing
Fast
detection
Morphology
evolution
Gas
sensing
mechanism
a
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
Herein,
high
performance
of
sub-ppb
NO
2
sensors
were
fabricated
based
on
Ag
nanoparticles
(NPs)
decorated
on
hierarchical
In
2
O
3
nanospheres
assembled
by
several
nanocubes
subunit
via
a
facile
hydrothermal
route
and
the
subsequent
decoration
process.
The
morphology
evolution
of
the
nanospheres
is
investigated,
which
revealed
that
the
nanocubes
of
the
nanospheres
shared
the
same
surface
and
self-assembled
together
according
to
the
oriented
attachment
mechanism.
When
perform-
ing
as
sensors,
such
nanostructures
possessed
relatively
good
sensitivity
to
NO
2
.
With
respect
to
the
decoration
of
Ag
NPs,
the
sensing
performances
can
be
further
remarkably
promoted
on
account
of
the
catalyst
activation
and
spill-over
effect.
©
2016
Published
by
Elsevier
B.V.
1.
Introduction
Nitrogen
dioxide
(NO
2
)
has
been
the
main
pollutants
in
the
ambient
atmosphere
and
can
also
irritate
to
the
respiratory
tract,
even
cause
the
lung
lesion
and
pulmonary
edema
of
human
[1].
For
this
reason,
NO
2
sensor
is
still
an
increasingly
expanding
topic
and
has
attracted
great
interest
due
to
their
potential
applications
in
environmental
monitoring,
exhaled
breath
detection,
chemical
and
food
industries,
etc.
[2–6].
Up
to
now,
the
NO
2
sensing
perfor-
mance
is
continuously
increased.
To
date,
in
light
of
their
desirable
characteristics
of
low
cost,
simplicity
of
fabrication
and
reliable
solid
state,
metal
oxide
semiconductors
are
being
considered
to
be
the
most
promising
material
of
gas
sensors
[7,8].
In
recent
years,
various
types
of
metal
oxides
(for
instance
ZnO
[9,10],
SnO
2
[11],
␣-Fe
2
O
3
[12],
WO
3
[13],
and
In
2
O
3
[14])
have
been
studied
and
various
types
of
gases
could
be
detected,
thereby
bringing
the
on-
site
gas
detection
of
interest
closer
to
a
reality.
Nevertheless,
new
sensor
strategies
towards
NO
2
gases
to
achieve
more
excellent
per-
formance
such
as
sub-ppb
detection
limit
and
fast
detection
speed
for
practical
application
are
still
in
a
nascent
stage
[15].
Hence,
to
expand
the
application
of
gas
sensors
virtually
should
hinge
on
the
improvement
of
sensitivity
and
the
reduction
of
detection
time.
∗
Corresponding
author.
E-mail
address:
zhangmz@jlu.edu.cn
(M.
Zhang).
Typically,
sensing
performance
is
intrinsically
associated
with
morphology
of
the
material
[16].
As
a
result,
nanomaterials
have
been
the
major
components
in
sensing
devices
due
to
their
fascinat-
ing
merits
of
size
and
shape
dependent
characteristics.
Optimizing
material
structures
with
low
dimensional
subunit-assembled
hier-
archical
architectures
have
been
demonstrated
favourable
for
application
owing
to
their
intrinsic
anisotropy
and
adjustable
spa-
tial
distribution
as
well
as
the
improved
special
surface
area
[17,18].
Several
efforts
are
attempted
to
obtain
high
performance
sensors
based
on
the
hierarchical
nanostructures
and
these
attempts
have
indeed
remarkably
improved.
For
instance,
Bai
et
al.
and
another
group
of
Wang
et
al.
both
reported
hierarchical
WO
3
microspheres
assembled
by
nanosheet
or
nanorod
with
excellent
NO
2
sensing
[19,20]
.
Manjulaet
et
al.
have
fabricated
high
performance
sens-
ing
material
based
on
the
porous
SnO
2
nanospheres
assembled
by
nanoparticles
[21].
Not
long
ago,
our
group
has
synthesized
a
fast
H
2
S
sensor
acted
by
a
nanorod-assembled
hierarchical
WO
3
architecture
[22].
Thus,
it
plays
a
critical
role
in
obtaining
supe-
rior
sensors
to
synthesis
the
low
dimensional
subunit-assembled
hierarchical
architectures
[23].
Noble
metals
have
been
demonstrated
to
be
effect
introduc-
tion
to
the
sensing
materials
to
overcome
the
essential
weaknesses
these
years
[24,25].
As
reported,
the
NO
2
sensitivity
could
be
improved
by
the
introduction
of
AgNPs
due
to
the
catalytic
activity
of
Ag
to
dissociate
the
NO
2
molecules
into
NO
2
−
[20].
For
instance,
some
researchers
have
reported
that
NO
2
sensing
was
enhanced
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.10.107
0925-4005/©
2016
Published
by
Elsevier
B.V.