Preparation of hollow porous SnO2 microcubes and their gas-sensing property

Abstract

Hollow porous SnO2 microcubes were obtained through a facile chemical solution route with subsequent calcination and acid-washing process. The process of inducing porosity starts with a crystalline single-phase MnSn(OH)6 precursor formed by the co-precipitation of the metal ions from the aqueous solution. Thermal decomposition of the precursors leads to an intimate mixture of Mn3O4 and porous tetragonal SnO2. The hollow porous SnO2 microcubes are obtained after a simple acid-washing process. Furthermore, the gas-sensing properties of the hollow porous SnO2 microcubes were investigated in toxic volatile organic compounds, such as formaldehyde, toluene, benzene, methanol, acetone, and ethanol. The detection limits of formaldehyde and toluene were approximately 0.08 and 0.19ppm, respectively, which substantially benefitted from their hollow porous structure and large surface area.