Controllable construction of multi-shelled ZnSnO3 hollow microspheres as high-performance sensing material for acetone detection

Abstract

Multi-shelled hollow structures have been drawing wide attention in various fields because of their large surface area, short diffusion path and less agglomerated configuration. Herein, ZnSnO3 hollow microspheres with controllable shell numbers have been prepared by a facile solvothermal reaction and following annealing treatment. The test results show that multi-shelled ZnSnO3 hollow microspheres exhibit excellent acetone sensing performance, which is superior than that of double-shelled samples. In particular, multi-shelled ZnSnO3 hollow microspheres not only show high responses of 105.1 and rapid response/recovery speed (1/18 s) to 100 ppm acetone, but also exhibit good repeatability, long-term stability and anti-humidity properties. Furthermore, they can easily distinguish healthy breath from simulated diabetic breath. And they still show rapid response/recovery speed in actual breath detection, which is beneficial to the achievement of real-time detection. The enhanced sensing performance has been studied systematically. Thus, multi-shelled ZnSnO3 hollow microspheres have a great potential for the diagnosis of diabetes.