Hydrothermal synthesis of flower-like SnO2 architectures with superior gas sensing properties

•A novel hierarchical SnO2 flower-like nanostructure was reported.•The SnO2 sheet-flower sensor shows a significantly enhanced gas response.•A possible growth mechanism for the flower-like architectures was proposed.

Nanomaterials with three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical architectures often exhibit good functional properties. In current work, flower-like SnO2 architectures self-assembled by aggregative nanosheets have been successfully synthesized via a simple yet facile hydrothermal method. Interestingly, it is found that the obtained sample shows excellent gas sensing performances towards ethanol and this is owing to that nano-petal can provide many quick passages to absorb and desorb gas. Moreover, a possible growth mechanism of this novel structure has been proposed. Such an unexpected morphology holds substantial promise for rendering SnO2 as an excellent gas sensing material.

Graphical abstractIn this work, we prepare hierarchical SnO2 flower-like architectures via a simple hydrothermal process, and report systematically the gas sensing performances and the mechanism of formation for this structure.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide