Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Template-free hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO microrods for gas sensor application

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Ionics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Zinc oxide microrods with controlled diameter were prepared without the addition of template and additive by a simple hydrothermal route only using Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O as a precursor. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and electron diffraction (ED). The crystal structure of prepared ZnO microrods is hexagonal phase polycrystalline with zincite structure. With the increase of the precursor concentration from 0.05 M to 0.6 M, the diameter of the ZnO microrods increased from 1 μm to 5 μm. A localized oriented attachment mechanism was prepared to account for the formation of ZnO microrods. The gas-sensing performance experiments indicated that the prepared ZnO microrods exhibited highly sensitive, selective gas-sensing properties, and good stability to acetone vapor. The response and recovery time of ZnO-based gas sensor to 100 ppm acetone vapor are 12 s and 18 s, respectively. The mechanism of the ZnO-based sensor was investigated.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zhang YD, Jia HM, Li PJ, Yang FL, Zheng Z (2011) Influence of glucose on the structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films prepared by sol–gel method. Opt Commun 284:236–239

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hu Y, Chen YQ, Wu YC, Wang MJ, Fang GJ, He CQ, Wang SJ (2009) Structural, defect and optical properties of ZnO films grown under various O2/Ar gas ratios. Appl Surf Sci 255:9279–9284

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Yi J, Lee JM, Park WI (2011) Vertically aligned ZnO nanorods and graphene hybrid architectures for high-sensitive flexible gas sensors. Sensors Actuators B Chem 155:264–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kim KT, Lee K, Oh MS, Park CH, Im S (2009) Surface-induced time-dependent instability of ZnO based thin-film transistors. Thin Solid Films 517:6345–6348

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Cao L, Zhu LP, Jiang J, Zhao R, Ye ZZ, Zhao BH (2011) Highly transparent and conducting fluorine-doped ZnO thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cell 95:894–898

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang W, Wang HW, Ma NH (2010) New type of piezo-damping aluminum matrix composites with ZnO:Al-coated LiNbO3 particles. Mater Lett 64:1657–1659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Yu JG, Yu XX (2008) Hydrothermal synthesis and photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide hollow spheres. Environ Sci Technol 42:4902–4907

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ko SH, Lee D, Kang HW, Nam KH, Yeo JY, Hong SJ, Grigoropoulos CP, Sung HJ (2011) Nanoforest of hydrothermally grown hierarchical ZnO nanowires for a high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cell. Nano Lett 11:666–671

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wei YG, Wu WZ, Guo R, Yuan DJ, Das SM, Wang ZL (2010) Wafer-scale high-throughput ordered growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays. Nano Lett 10:3414–3419

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Liu NS, Fang GJ, Zeng W, Long H, Fan X, Yuan LY, Zou X, Liu YP, Zhao XZ (2010) Strong effect of interelectrode distance on the performance of a novel ZnO nanorod lateral field emission device fabricated by a single-step hydrothermal approach. J Phys Chem C 114:8575–8580

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Kim TU, Kim JA, Pawar SM, Moon JH, Kim JH (2010) Creation of nano scale two-dimensional patterns of ZnO nanorods using laser interference lithography followed by hydrothermal synthesis at 90 °C. Cryst Growth Des 10:4256–4261

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Chen YX, Zhao XQ, Sha B, Chen JH (2008) Stacking fault directed growth of thin ZnO nanobelt. Mater Lett 62:2369–2371

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Chen YJ, Zhu CL, Xiao G (2008) Ethanol sensing characteristics of ambient temperature sonochemically synthesized ZnO nanotubes. Sensors Actuators B Chem 129:639–642

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Xiao Q, Huang SP, Zhang J, Xiao C, Tan XK (2008) Electric transport in R2MGe6 ternary compounds (R = La, Ce, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho; M = Mn, Ni, Cu). J Alloys Compd 459:18–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Feng YJ, Zhang M, Guo M, Wang XD (2010) Studies on the PEG-assisted hydrothermal synthesis and growth mechanism of ZnO microrod and mesoporous microsphere arrays on the substrate. Cryst Growth Des 10:1500–1507

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Jiang CY, Sun XW, Lo GQ, Kwong DL, Wang JX (2007) Improved dye-sensitized solar cells with a ZnO-nanoflower photoanode. Appl Phys Lett 90:263501–263503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Na JS, Gong B, Scarel G, Parsons GN (2009) Surface polarity shielding and hierarchical ZnO nano-architectures produced using sequential hydrothermal crystal synthesis and thin film atomic layer deposition. ACS Nano 3:3191–3199

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Umar A, Ribeiro C, Hajry AA, Masuda Y (2009) Growth of highly c-axis-oriented ZnO nanorods on ZnO/glass substrate: growth mechanism, structural, and optical properties. J Phys Chem C 113:14715–14720

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Kang HW, Yeo J, Hwang JO, Hong S, Lee P, Han SY, Lee JH, Rho YS, Kim SO, Ko SH, Sung HJ (2011) Simple ZnO nanowires patterned growth by microcontact printing for high performance field emission device. J Phys Chem C 115:11435–11441

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Polsongkram D, Chamninok P, Pukird S, Chow L, Lupan O, Chai G, Khallaf H, Park S, Schulte A (2008) Effect of synthesis conditions on the growth of ZnO nanorods via hydrothermal method. Phys B 403:3713–3717

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Lupan O, Chow L, Chai GY, Roldan B, Naitabdi A, Schulte A, Heinrich H (2007) Nanofabrication and characterization of ZnO nanorod arrays and branched microrods by aqueous solution route and rapid thermal processing. Mater Sci Eng B 145:57–66

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Pol VG, Calderon-Moreno JM, Thiyagarajan P (2008) Facile synthesis of novel photoluminescent ZnO micro- and nanopencils. Langmuir 24:13640–13645

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Oh JY, Park J, Kang SY, Hwang CS, Shim HK (2009) Room temperature fabrication of ZnO nanorod films: synthesis and application as a channel layer of transparent thin film transistors. Chem Commun 30:4545–4547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Zhang J, Wang SR, Xu MJ, Wang Y, Zhu BL, Zhang SM, Huang WP, Wu SH (2009) Hierarchically porous ZnO architectures for gas sensor application. Cryst Growth Des 9:3532–3537

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Prajapati CS, Sahay PP (2011) Alcohol-sensing characteristics of spray deposited ZnO nano-particle thin films. Sensors Actuators B 160:1043–1049

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Lupan O, Emelchenko GA, Ursaki VV, Chai G, Redkin AN, Gruzintsev AN, Tiginyanu IM, Chow L, Ono LK, Roldan Cuenya B, Heinrich H, Yakimov EE (2010) Synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanowires for nanosensor applications. Mater Res Bull 45:1026–1032

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Lupan O, Chai GY, Chow L (2008) Novel hydrogen gas sensor based on single ZnO nanorod. Microelectron Eng 85:2220–2225

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Yu HG, Yu JG, Liu SW, Mann S (2007) Template-free hydrothermal synthesis of CuO/Cu2O composite hollow microspheres. Chem Mater 19:4327–4334

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Zhang YD, Zheng Z, Yang FL (2010) Highly sensitive and selective alcohol sensors based on Ag-doped In2O3 coating. Ind Eng Chem Res 49:3539–3543

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Niu XS, Zhang X, Wang XJ, Jiang K (2006) Sensing properties of rare earth oxide doped In2O3 by a sol-gel method. Sensors Actuators B 115:434–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Liu ZT, Fan TX, Zhang D, Gong XL, Xu JQ (2009) Hierarchically porous ZnO with high sensitivity and selectivity to H2S derived from biotemplates. Sensors Actuators B 136:499–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Zamani C, Casalas O, Andreu T, Morante JR, Romano-Rodriguet A (2009) Detection of amines with chromium-doped WO3 mesoporous material. Sensors Actuators B 140:557–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Zhang YD, Jiang GC, Wong KW, Zheng Z (2010) Green synthesis of indium oxide hollow spheres with specific sensing activities for flammable organic vapors. Sens Lett 8:355–361

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Zeng Y, Zhang T, Yuan MX, Kang MH, Lu GY, Wang R, Fan HT, He Y, Yang HB (2009) Growth and selective acetone detection based on ZnO nanorods arrays. Sensors Actuators B 143:93–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Liu X, Hu JF, Cheng B, Qin HW, Jiang MH (2008) Acetone gas sensing properties of SmFe1 − x Mg x O3 perovskite oxides. Sensors Actuators B 134:483–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Zhang YD, Zhang WQ, Gao YH, Zheng Z (2011) Tunable morphology and ethanol-sensing performance by sintering temperature based on WO3-based ceramics. Synth React Inorg Chem 41:639–643

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Henan Provincial Outstanding Young Science Foundation (No. 074100510018) and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (No. 20070410616).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhengzhou College of Animal Husbandry Engineering, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, 450011, People’s Republic of China

    Xinmin Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Xinmin Wang, Chengqun Yu, Junxi Wu & Yidong Zhang

Authors
  1. Xinmin Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chengqun Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Junxi Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yidong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yidong Zhang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, X., Yu, C., Wu, J. et al. Template-free hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO microrods for gas sensor application. Ionics 19, 355–360 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-012-0714-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-012-0714-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation