Synthesis and gas sensing application of porous CeO2–ZnO hollow fibers using cotton as biotemplates

• The porous CeO2–ZnO hollow fibers is synthesized by using cotton as biotemplates.
• The holes on walls of CeO2–ZnO hollow fibers provide more gas diffusion routes.
• The gas sensor has the sensing excellent performance for ethanol detection.

Biomorphic pure ZnO and porous CeO2–ZnO hollow fibers have been fabricated using cotton as biotemplates. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). XRD results indicate that the CeO2–ZnO sample is well crystallized and shows a mixed phase of CeO2 and ZnO. Compared with pure ZnO, the CeO2–ZnO sensor exhibits much better response to ethanol with high sensitivity and good selectivity at 260 °C, which is mainly contributed to the increasing of active surface area and gas diffusion.