Simple Synthesis of Mesoporous SnO<sub>2</sub> Microspheres and their Gas Sensing Properties

Abstract

In this work, uniform mesoporous SnO2microspheres have been prepared via a facile and scalable method using tin tetrachloride pentahydrate (SnCl4·5H2O) and resorcinol-formaldehyde gel (RF gel) as starting materials. Furthermore, the structure and morphology of the as-prepared product were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). The results revealed that as-synthesized microspheres were around 500 nm in size and composed of large amount of SnO2nanoparticles with diameters of 10-20 nm. Gas sensors based on mesoporous SnO2microspheres were fabricated, and their gas sensing properties were tested for response to methane, butane, H2and CO gas. The sensor exhibited better sensitivity and selectivity to H2vapors at 300 °C than that of the conventional SnO2materials. The enhancement in gas sensing properties was attributed to their unique nanostructures.