Enhanced gas sensing properties of V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires decorated with SnO sub(2) nanoparticles to ethanol at room temperature

• Published in: RSC advances 2015-05, Vol.5 (51), p.41050-41058
• Main Authors: Wang, Ruibing, Yang, Shuang, Deng, Rong, Chen, Wen, Liu, Yueli, Zhang, Han, Zakharova, Galina S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decoration; Ethanol; Ethyl alcohol; Gas sensors; Nanoparticles; Nanowires; Tin dioxide; Vanadium pentoxide
• ISSN: 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c5ra00530b

V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires decorated with SnO sub(2) nanoparticles are prepared by two-step mild hydrothermal reaction, and the gas sensor device is fabricated by coating the nanowires as a thick film on the alumina tube. The pure V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires have almost no response to ethanol at room temperature, however, the sensitivity of V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires decorated with SnO sub(2) nanoparticles is 1.46 upon exposure to 1000 ppm ethanol gas. The highest sensitivity of gas sensor based on V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires decorated with SnO sub(2) nanoparticles to 1000 ppm ethanol is about 14, which is 2-3 times of pure V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires. The improved sensing performance of the composite is due to the increased depletion width and active sites along the nanowires, the energy gap between V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires and SnO sub(2) nanoparticles promotes the electrons transport. Moreover, the gas sensor based on V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires decorated with SnO sub(2) nanoparticles possesses a good selectivity to ethanol compared with other gases, such as CO sub(2), H sub(2)O and NH sub(3), and the stability of gas sensing performance is quite good, which implies that it would be a good candidate in the potential application.