Enhanced Gas Sensitivity and Selectivity on Aperture-Controllable 3D Interconnected Macro-Mesoporous ZnO Nanostructures

Three-dimensional (3D) macro-mesoporous structures demonstrate effective performance for gas sensing. In this work, we have designed and successfully prepared aperture-controllable three-dimensional interconnected macro-mesoporous ZnO (3D-IMM-ZnO) nanostructures by template-based layer-by-layer filtration deposition. XRD, SEM, and TEM have been used to characterize the obtained hexagonal wurzite 3D-IMM-ZnO nanostructures. Owing to its special 3D interconnected hierarchically porous structure, the 3D-IMM-ZnO nanostructures exhibit excellent gas sensing performances toward acetone and methanol. The 3D-IMM-ZnO nanostructure with the largest macropore demonstrates the best gas sensitivity owing to its largest cavity providing enough space for gas diffusion. On the basis of the results and analyses, we propose that the synergistic effect of electron liberation and electron density of acetone and the special structure make the 3D-IMM-ZnO nanostructures demonstrate better gas sensing properties than many other porous ZnO nanostructures and preferred selectivity to acetone.