Solution-based synthesis of ZnO/carbon nanostructures by chemical coupling for high performance gas sensors

A hybrid nanostructure of carbon with ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) was synthesized by grafting glucose on the surface of the ZnO NPs as the precursor and heating at 180 C for 30 min, which morphological feature was characterized as nanoparticles with an average diameter of 20-25 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that the ZnO/C nanostructures preserved good dispersity and uniformity. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), N₂ adsorption and gas-sensing measurements were performed to study the structure and the gas-sensing properties of the ZnO/C nanostructures. The gas-sensing properties demonstrated that the sensors based on the ZnO/C nanostructures exhibited a much higher gas response to acetone and ethanol vapor than the sensors based on the pure ZnO nanoparticles and the mechanism was also discussed.