Enhanced gas sensing properties of V2O5 nanowires decorated with SnO2 nanoparticles to ethanol at room temperature

• Main Authors: Wang, Ruibing, Yang, Shuang, Deng, Rong, Chen, Wen, Liu, Yueli, Zhang, Han, Zakharova, Galina S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c5ra00530b

V 2 O 5 nanowires decorated with SnO 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 2 O 5 nanowires have almost no response to ethanol at room temperature, however, the sensitivity of V 2 O 5 nanowires decorated with SnO 2 nanoparticles is 1.46 upon exposure to 1000 ppm ethanol gas. The highest sensitivity of gas sensor based on V 2 O 5 nanowires decorated with SnO 2 nanoparticles to 1000 ppm ethanol is about 14, which is 2-3 times of pure V 2 O 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 2 O 5 nanowires and SnO 2 nanoparticles promotes the electrons transport. Moreover, the gas sensor based on V 2 O 5 nanowires decorated with SnO 2 nanoparticles possesses a good selectivity to ethanol compared with other gases, such as CO 2 , H 2 O and NH 3 , and the stability of gas sensing performance is quite good, which implies that it would be a good candidate in the potential application. TEM image and room temperature sensitivity of V 2 O 5 nanowire yarns decorated with SnO 2 nanoparticles to ethanol.