Green light-activated room temperature NO2 sensor based on PTCDA-loaded ZnO nanocluster

Abstract

Flower-like zinc oxide nanoclusters were successfully incorporated by different amount of PTCDA organic dye molecular, forming the hetero-structured PTCDA/ZnO composites. Remarkably, a study performed on their NO2 sensing properties reveals that the 0.5 wt% PTCDA-loaded ZnO sensor exhibits high response, excellent selectivity, quick response speed and low detection limit of 7.4 ppb towards NO2 molecules at room temperature (25 °C) under green light illumination, which possesses an apparent advantage over the ZnO sensors loaded with other PTCDA concentration as well as upon other light illumination conditions. This work makes a meaningful contribution to the development of NO2 sensor based on wide-band gap semiconductors with visible light irradiation.