Facile synthesis and gas sensing properties of the flower-like NiO-decorated ZnO microstructures

In this paper, the pure and NiO-decorated ZnO flower-like structures with uniform sizes were synthesized by a simple two-step process. As the gas sensing materials of oxide semiconductors gas sensors, their sensing properties were investigated systematically. The results manifested that the sensor based on 8.0 at% NiO-decorated ZnO microflowers showed improved gas sensing properties compared with those of pure ZnO microflowers. The introduction of NiO is believed to not only change the quantity of chemisorbed oxygen, but also form the p-n junction with ZnO. Thus, the functionalization of ZnO with NiO may be a promising method for designing and fabricating the high performance gas sensor.