CTAB-assisted synthesis of 3D Sn doped ZnO nanostructures with enhanced acetone sensing performance

• The flowerlike Sn doped ZnO nanostructures were synthesized by a CTAB-assisted hydrothermal process.
• The sensor exhibited enhanced sensing performance to acetone.

The flowerlike Sn doped ZnO nanostructures were synthesized by a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-assisted hydrothermal process at low temperature (150 °C). The morphology and structure of sample were characterized by XRD, EDS, XPS, SEM and TEM analysis. The results indicate that the sample is well crystallized wurtzite hexagonal phase of ZnO, and preferentially grows up along [0001] direction. The possible formation mechanism of flowerlike ZnO nanostructures is proposed. Moreover, the sensor based on flowerlike ZnO nanostructures exhibits enhanced sensing performances to acetone at 300 °C. The response is up to 600 when the sensor is exposed to 100 ppm acetone. The response and recovery times are about 24 and 8 s, respectively. These results demonstrate that the Sn doped ZnO nanoflowers can be used as the sensing materials for fabricating high performance acetone sensor.

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