Preparation and low-temperature gas-sensing properties of SnO₂ ultra-fine fibers fabricated by a centrifugal spinning process

In this paper, centrifugal spinning technology and calcination were used to prepare SnO₂ ultra-fine fibers. Several parameters such as the concentration of SnCl₄, rotational speed, and diameter of the spinneret were discussed to determine the optimum spinning conditions. The obtained as-spun fibers and SnO₂ ultra-fine fibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the low-temperature gas-sensing properties of the SnO₂ sample were systematically investigated. The results proved that the SnO₂ sample had good sensitivity for a variety of measured gases at low temperature. Among these, the SnO₂ sensor showed the highest sensitivity for HCl gas, and the sensitivity for ethanol gas increased rapidly when its concentration exceeded 1200 ppm. Our results demonstrated that the centrifugal spinning could be a potential approach for preparing the SnO₂ gas sensor.