Ethanol Sensing Properties and First Principles Study of Au Supported on Mesoporous ZnO Derived from Metal Organic Framework ZIF-8

It is of great significance to develop ethanol sensors with high sensitivity and low detection temperature. Hence, we prepared Au-supported material on mesoporous ZnO composites derived from a metal-organic framework ZIF-8 for the detection of ethanol gas. The obtained Au/ZnO materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field emission transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherms. The results showed that the Au/ZnO-1.0 sample maintains a three-dimensional (3D) dodecahedron structure with a larger specific surface area (22.79 m2 g−1) and has more oxygen vacancies. Because of the unique ZIF structure, abundant surface defects and the formation of Au-ZnO Schottky junctions, an Au/ZnO-1.0 sensor has a response factor of 37.74 for 100 ppm ethanol at 250 °C, which is about 6 times that of pure ZnO material. In addition, the Au/ZnO-1.0 sensor has good selectivity for ethanol. According to density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the adsorption energy of Au/ZnO for ethanol (−1.813 eV) is significantly greater than that of pure ZnO (−0.217 eV). Furthermore, the adsorption energy for ethanol is greater than that of other gases.