Development of efficient chemi-sensor and photo-catalyst based on wet-chemically prepared ZnO nanorods for environmental remediation

• Well-crystalline ZnO NRs were prepared by facile wet-chemical process.
• Well-crystalline rod-shape structure with an average diameter of 58.61 ± 5.0 nm were found.
• Ammonia chemical sensor based on NRs is developed using reliable I–V technique.
• It is displayed the higher sensitivity (∼5.538 μA/cm2/mM) and lower detection limit (∼0.11 μM).

Highly sensitive ammonia chemical sensor has been fabricated by using efficient ZnO nanorods (NRs) synthesized by low temperature wet-chemical process. The fabricated ammonia sensor showed excellent sensitivity ∼5.538 μA/cm2/mM, lower-detection limit (∼0.11 μM), and large-linear dynamic range (LDR, 0.5 μM to 0.5 mM) with good linearity (R = 0.7102) in short response time (10.0 s). Additionally, ZnO NRs displayed excellent performance in degrading acridine orange (AO), methylene blue (MB), and amido black (AB). The structural and morphological characterizations of the synthesized ZnO was carried out by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FT-IR), and UV–vis spectrophotometer, which confirmed that the synthesized product is wurtzite type well-crystalline rod-shape structure with an average diameter of 58.61 ± 5.0 nm.