Construction of SnS2/ZIF-8 derived flower-like porous SnO2/ZnO heterostructures with enhanced triethylamine gas sensing performance

SnO2-based flower-like sensitive materials derived from the self-assembled SnS2 microstructures with more active areas and less agglomeration represent an alternative option for new generation of gas sensors. Meanwhile, the introduction of ZIF-8 for semiconductor surface functionalization is expected to get multi-functional hybrid materials with synergistic effects of individual components. In the present work, SnS2/ZIF-8 derived porous flower-like SnO2/ZnO heterostructures have been synthesized by a facile template method and the subsequent heat-treatment process. Beside the uniform morphology with tunable composition and size distribution, the attractive findings are focused on the enhanced triethylamine (TEA) gas-sensing properties of the obtained composites. SnO2/ZnO heterostructures show an obvious improvement in TEA gas sensing performance at the operating temperature of 200 °C, giving a response of about 17.7–50 ppm TEA, which was about 2.2 times higher than that of the sensors based on pure SnO2.