Gas sensing properties of ZnO nanostructures (flowers/rods) synthesized by hydrothermal method

Here, we report the hydrothermal synthesis of flower-shaped ZnO nanostructures and investigated their morphology-dependent gas sensing properties. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) study confirmed the formation of two kinds of floral structures. At short reaction time, flower-like structures (2–3 μm in size) composed of nanoparticles are formed, whereas floral assemblies (˜ 5 μm) of nanorods are formed at long reaction time. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the formation of the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO. The average crystallite size of prepared nanoflowers and nanorods were found to be 21 nm and 43 nm, respectively. These results are supported by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The band gap of ZnO nanostructures was calculated from the UV–vis absorption spectrum and found to be 3.0 eV and 3.19 eV for ZnO nanoflowers and nanorods, respectively. Broad absorption peak in the visible region of photoluminescence (PL) spectra confirmed the presence of oxygen vacancies in both specimens. Furthermore, morphology dependent gas sensing property was investigated for ethanol, benzene, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide at different operating temperatures and concentrations. Although both morphologies have shown good sensitivity and selectivity towards NO2 at ppb, the response of nanoflower was higher than that of nanorods, which was attributed to its relatively higher surface area and amount of surface defects.