Room temperature solid-state synthesis and ethanol sensing properties of sea-urchin-like ZnO nanostructures

ZnO gas-sensing materials were prepared by one-step solid-state reaction at room temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were used to characterize the hierarchal ZnO nanocrystals. The results indicate that ZnO clusters are assembled with nanosheets when no surface-active agent is present. When surface-active agent PEG-10000 was added, sea-urchin-like ZnO are assembled from ZnO nodules. The rods have an average diameter of 33 nm and length of about 100 nm. The primary gas-sensing results show that sea-urchin-like ZnO have good gas sensitivity to ethanol vapor.