CdO–ZnO nanorices for enhanced and selective formaldehyde gas sensing applications

Abstract

This paper reports synthesis, properties and gas sensing applications of ZnO nanoflowers and CdO–ZnO nanorices prepared by hydrothermal process. The morphological characterizations confirmed the formation of well-defined nanoflowers and nanorices structures for ZnO and CdO–ZnO nanomaterials, respectively. The structural properties revealed the wurtzite hexagonal phase of the synthesized materials. The sensor devices based on ZnO nanoflowers and CdO–ZnO nanorices were fabricated and tested towards various gases including ethanol, methanol, ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane and formaldehyde. The fabricated gas sensor based on CdO–ZnO nanorices exhibited a high response (34.5) towards 300 ppm formaldehyde gas at 350 °C compared to ZnO nanoflowers (14.5) under the same experimental conditions. The response and recovery times for ZnO nanoflowers-based sensor were~9.8 s and ~6 s while for CdO–ZnO based sensor, these were ~10s and ~6s, respectively. A rapid response (34.5) for CdO–ZnO nanorices based formaldehyde gas sensor was observed as compared to other gases such as ammonia (12.3), methanol (16.5), ethanol (20), carbon monoxide (16.3) and methane (12.4), which confirm the high-selectivity towards formaldehyde gas. Finally, a plausible formaldehyde gas sensing mechanism is proposed.