Facile synthesis and gas sensing properties of tubular hierarchical ZnO self-assembled by porous nanosheets

A three-dimensional hierarchical porous ZnO with tubular structure has been prepared by calcininga a tubular hierarchical hydrozincite precursor. The precursor was prepared through in situ growth of nanosheets on an as-synthesized template of zinc complex nanotubes at room temperature without using organic solvent, surfactant agent, and foreign template. The obtained three-dimensional hierarchical porous ZnO was characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, BET, and FT-IR. The results show that the three-dimensional hierarchical porous ZnO, having a specific surface area of 78 m(2)g(-1), consists of interleaving mesoporous nanosheets composed of ZnO nanoparticles. Also its gas sensing properties were investigated, and the three-dimensional hierarchical porous ZnO shows superior gas sensing performance toward ethanol because the widely open and porous structure offers efficient gas diffusion route and the large specific surface area and small particle size supply abundant active sites for the gas adsorption. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.