Synthesis of tin-glycerate and it conversion into SnO2 spheres for highly sensitive low-ppm-level acetone detection

Abstract

Tin-glycerate (Sn-Gly) spheres were synthesized through a simple solvothermal strategy, which was further thermally converted into SnO2. It is found that the loose SnO2 spheres have been built up from nanoparticles with about 10 nm in size. The use of such SnO2 nanostructures was further performed for low-ppm-level acetone detection. The results showed that the SnO2 presented response of 123 to 100 ppm acetone vapor at 260 °C. The sensor also exhibited rapid response/recovery time (24.5 s/6.5 s), low detection limit (1.5 at 1 ppm), excellent selectivity, and good reproducibility. Especially, a good linearity ranging from 1 to 100 ppm acetone was fitted, making it a promising candidate for acetone detection.