Abstract
This work presents the impact of surface decoration on the VOC sensing properties of ZnO:Ag columnar films by AgPt and AgAu bimetallic alloy nanoparticles.
Highlights
Nanocomposites that consist of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) and micro- and nanostructures of semiconducting oxides, such as ZnO, SnO2 and CuO, have attracted signi cant research interest for the their potentially sensitive detection of gases and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) vapors,[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] owing to their excellent electronic, catalytic and optical properties.[8,9] Surface decoration by noble metal NPs has shown to affect many sensor characteristics including: (i) the sensitivity, enabling the detection of even trace amounts of gases; (ii) the selectivity towards certain gaseous species; (iii) the response and recovery times, which have been substantially reduced; and (iv) the acceptable operating temperatures, which have been shi ed to values close to ambient conditions.[1,10,11,12] Recently, highly sensitive and selective hydrogen gas nanosensors have been described that are based on individual ZnO nanowires decorated by Pd NPs.[1,10] Guo et al reported a remarkable enhancement of the gas sensing properties of ZnO nanorods by surface decoration with Au NPs, leading to fast response and recovery times, good selectivity and stable repeatability.[11,13] Majhi et al have successfully prepared Au@ZnO core–shell NPs by a facile low-temperature solution route for highly selective H2 gas detection, which was attributed to the chemical as well as catalytic effect of Au NPs.[12]
The surface of ZnO:Ag nanostructured columnar grains was successfully decorated with AgPt and AgAu bimetallic noble bimetallic alloy NPs using a custom-made high vacuum deposition system with an in-house Haberland type gas aggregation source
The nanocomposites with AgAu NPs exhibit a highly improved response to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) vapors compared to the pristine ZnO:Ag thin lms and previously reported nanocomposites based on ZnO:Ag and Ag NPs
Summary
Nanocomposites that consist of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) and micro- and nanostructures of semiconducting oxides, such as ZnO, SnO2 and CuO, have attracted signi cant research interest for the their potentially sensitive detection of gases and VOC vapors,[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] owing to their excellent electronic, catalytic and optical properties.[8,9] Surface decoration by noble metal NPs has shown to affect many sensor characteristics including: (i) the sensitivity, enabling the detection of even trace amounts of gases; (ii) the selectivity towards certain gaseous species; (iii) the response and recovery times, which have been substantially reduced; and (iv) the acceptable operating temperatures, which have been shi ed to values close to ambient conditions.[1,10,11,12] Recently, highly sensitive and selective hydrogen gas nanosensors have been described that are based on individual ZnO nanowires decorated by Pd NPs.[1,10] Guo et al reported a remarkable enhancement of the gas sensing properties of ZnO nanorods by surface decoration with Au NPs, leading to fast response and recovery times, good selectivity and stable repeatability.[11,13] Majhi et al have successfully prepared Au@ZnO core–shell NPs by a facile low-temperature solution route for highly selective H2 gas detection, which was attributed to the chemical as well as catalytic effect of Au NPs.[12]. We have used AgPt and AgAu noble bimetallic alloy nanoparticles (NPs) to decorate the surfaces of ZnO:Ag and we have measured their resulting gas sensing properties towards VOC vapors and hydrogen gas.
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