Porous ZnO cubes derived from metal–organic frameworks with excellent sensing performance triethylamine

Recently, the metal organic frameworks (MOFs) structure is concerned by its unique porous structure and regular morphology. In this paper, ZnO has been prepared by calcining MOF-5 precursors which obtained via a solvothermal method. For a better comparison, the reaction time needs to be appropriately changed to control the sizes of samples. The obtained samples were analyzed for composition and morphology by a series of characterization methods, and the results showed that particle size of MOF-5 precursors increased with reaction time. The ZnO particles formed after calcination are composed of crystal grains of 20–30 nm and thus have a porous structure. Gas-sensitive performance tests show that the sensor based on MOF-5-derived ZnO has good gas sensitivity. Among them, the responsiveness of MOF-5-derived ZnO prepared by solvothermal reaction for 4 h was the highest at 300 °C, and the response value to 100 ppm triethylamine (TEA) was 120.6. In addition, MOF-5-derived ZnO has better selectivity and repeatability than ZnO which is prepared using other methods.