Synthesis of octahedron Zn₂SnO₄ by hydrothermal method for high performance ethanol sensor #

Abstract

The octahedron Zn₂SnO₄ was prepared through a facile hydrothermal method for ethanol gas-sensing application. The synthesized material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and powder x-ray diffraction (XRD). The gas-sensing characteristics were measured at various concentrations of ethanol at temperature ranging from 350 to 450ºC. The gas response exhibits good linear relationship with increasing ethanol concentrations in the range of 50-250 ppm. Gas-sensing measurements demonstrated that the synthesized octahedron Zn₂SnO₄ showed n-type semiconducting behavior, where the sensor resistance decreased upon exposure to ethanol. The findings pointed out that the sensors showed the highest response value at operating temperature of 400ºC. The sensor response value was 30 at 250 ppm ethanol. Such outstanding gas sensing property might be attributed to the morphology of the octahedra which provided large contact area between Zn₂SnO₄ and target gas. The synthesized octahedron Zn₂SnO₄ is potential for detecting traces of ethanol.