Hydrothermal growth of symmetrical ZnO nanorod arrays on nanosheets for gas sensing applications

Abstract

The hierarchical ZnO nanostructures with 2-fold symmetrical nanorod arrays on zinc aluminum carbonate (ZnAl-CO₃) nanosheets have been successfully synthesized through a two-step hydrothermal process. The primary nanosheets, which serve as the lattice-matched substrate for the self-assembly nanorod arrays at the second-step of the hydrothermal route, have been synthesized by using a template of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM and SAED. The nanorods have a diameter of about 100 nm and a length of about 2 µm. A growth mechanism was proposed according to the experimental results. The gas sensor fabricated from ZnO nanorod arrays showed a high sensitivity to ethanol at 230 °C. In addition, the response mechanism of the sensors has also been discussed according to the transient response of the gas sensors.

Keywords

ZnO nanorods / hydrothermal growth / gas sensitivity

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51302118 and 11304131), the Science Foundation of the Education Department of Jiangxi Province (No. GJJ13619), Science Foundation of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology (No. 20142BAB212006), Jingdezhen Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (103037201), Open Topics of the State Key Laboratory of Super-hard Materials in Jilin University (201313) and the State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing in Tsinghua University (KF1211, KF201206).

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