Improvement of ethanolamine sensing performance based on Au-modified ZnO rod-like nanoflowers

Au-modified ZnO rod-like nanoflowers are fabricated. As prepared Au-ZnO nanoflower based gas sensor exhibits excellent gas sensing performance for 100 ppm ethanolamine (EA) gas at 210 °C, including high response (138.27), fast response/recovery time (15 s/34 s), good linearity between response and gas concentration, low detection limit down to 1 ppm, and good stability and repeatability. We propose that these excellent sensing properties come from the fact that Au-ZnO nanoflowers are assembled from one-dimensional nanorods into a regular and ordered three-dimensional flower-like structures, the open space in which provides more active sites with a larger specific surface area. Therefore, Au-ZnO nanoflowers can be used as candidate materials in efficient gas sensors in the future.