Ce-doped ZnO nanorods for the detection of hazardous chemical

This paper reports a successful synthesis, characterizations and an efficient chemical sensor application of as-synthesized Ce-doped ZnO nanorods. The Ce-doped ZnO nanorods were synthesized by simple low-temperature hydrothermal process. The as-synthesized nanorods were characterized in terms of their morphological, structural and compositional properties. The morphological and structural studies revealed that the synthesized nanorods were grown in high-density and possessed well-crystallinity. The as-synthesized nanorods were used as an effective electron mediator for the fabrication of an efficient hydroquinone chemical sensor. The fabricated sensor exhibited high and reproducible sensitivity of ∼10.218 ± 0.01 mA cm−2 mM−1 and detection limit of ∼10 nM. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ever report on the fabrication of hydroquinone chemical sensor using Ce-doped ZnO nanostructures. This work demonstrates that simply synthesized Ce-doped ZnO nanostructures can be used as an effective electron mediator for the fabrication of chemical sensors.