Assembly of 2D nanosheets into flower-like MoO3: New insight into the petal thickness affect on gas-sensing properties

In our work, three hierarchical molybdenum oxide flower-like architectures were favourably synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method. By comprehensive characterization of their morphologie and structures, possible growth mechanisms for the three nanomaterials are proposed. Afterwards, we built gas sensors based on the three kinds of MoO3 nanoflowers and indicated that petal thickness influences their gas-sensing capability. The rose-like flower materials with relatively thin petals had better gas-sensing properties towards ethanol than the other nanoflowers. The enhanced sensing ability may be due to lower amount of agglomerated structures between the thin nanosheets, leading to an adequate sensory response on the surface as well as substantials gas pervasion.