Synthesis of SnO2/ZnO composite nanofibers by electrospinning method and study of its ethanol sensing properties

In this paper, we report the synthesis of SnO2/ZnO composite nanofibers via electrospinning method. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/zinc acetate/stannous chloride nanofibers were electrospun using a solution containing PVA, zinc acetate and stannous chloride in distilled-water followed by calcination at 650 °C for 2 h, obtaining the related composite nanofibers. The nanofibers were characterized by simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Ethanol sensing of the nanofibers showed a good and desirable sensing behavior such as high sensitivity, quick response and recovery times.

► In this paper, we report the synthesis of SnO2/ZnO composite nanofibers via electrospinning SnO2/ZnO composite nanofibers with good distribution of diameter size and the average diameter size of about 75 nm were synthesized via the electrospinning method. Polyvinyl alcohol, zinc acetate and stannous chloride were used as the precursors. The ethanol sensor based on these nanofibers showed a good and desirable sensing behavior such as high sensitivity, quick response and recovery times at optimum temperature of 360 °C.