New Design of ZnO Nanorod- and Nanowire-Based NO2 Room-Temperature Sensors Prepared by Hydrothermal Method

Room-temperature gas sensors are attracting attention because of their low power consumption, safe operation, and long-term stability. Herein, ZnO nanorods (NRs) and nanowires (NWs) were on-chip grown via a facile hydrothermal method and used for room-temperature NO2 gas sensor applications. The ZnO NRs were obtained by a one-step hydrothermal process, whereas the NWs were obtained by a two-step hydrothermal process. To obtain ZnO NW sensor, the length of NRs was controlled short enough so that none of the nanorod-nanorod junction was made. Thereafter, the NWs were grown from the tips of no-contact NRs to form nanowire-nanowire junctions. The gas-sensing characteristics of ZnO NRs and NWs were tested against NO2 gas at room temperature for comparison. The gas-sensing characteristics of the sensors were also tested at different applied voltages to evaluate the effect of the self-activated gas-sensing performance. Results show that the diameter of ZnO NRs and NWs is the dominant parameter of their NO2 gas-sensing performance at room temperature. In addition, self-activation by local heating occurred for both sensors, but because the NWs were smaller and sparser than the NRs, local heating thus required a lower applied voltage with maximal response compared with the NRs.