A facile cotton biotemplate to fabricate porous ZnFe₂O₄ sheets for acetone gas sensing application

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Hu, Jingjie;Yaun, Qiming;Zhang, Cheng;Zhang, Jian;He, Lifang;Gao, Hongliang;Jin, Ling;Fan, Liyuan;Zhang, Kui;Chu, Xiangfeng;Meng, Fanli
Abstract

Developing methods to synthesize semiconductor oxides with hierarchically porous architecture is an effective way to improve their sensing properties. Herein, a strategy using cotton as biotemplates involving immersion, solvothermal reaction and calcination has been developed to synthesize ZnFe₂O₄ with porous flaky and curly sheets structure. The calcination temperature was optimized, and sensing properties of the as-prepared porous ZnFe₂O₄ sheet composites were investigated. For comparison, without cotton template, ZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticle (NPs) was synthesized. Meanwhile, without solvothermal reaction, ZnFe₂O₄ mixture of fiber-like structure and NPs (ZnFe₂O₄ fiber/NPs) was obtained. Sensors based on these comparison samples showed poor sensing performance to various gases. Whereas, the sensor based on porous ZnFe₂O₄ sheet composite calcined at 600 ℃ exhibited good selectivity, fast response and stability to acetone, and a high response of 66.7–100 ppm was also obtained at 220 ℃. The good sensing performance of the porous ZnFe₂O₄ sheet composite was mainly attributed to its porous structure and the formation of heterojunctions with ZnO and Fe₂O₃ found in the composite. The strategy might also be an effective way to fabricate other porous nanomaterials for applications besides ZnFe₂O₄.

Journal

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

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371

ISBN/ISSN

1873-3077

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Pages Count

9

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Publisher

Elsevier

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DOI

10.1016/j.snb.2022.132587