Enhancing room-temperature NO2 sensing properties via forming heterojunction for NiO-rGO composited with SnO2 nanoplates

Recently, metal oxide semiconductors (MOS)-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites have attracted great attention for room-temperature gas sensing applications. Here, to further improve the room-temperature NO2 sensing properties of Ni0-rGO, ternary NiO-SnO2-rGO nanocomposites was successfully prepared. The gas-sensing studies revealed that the ternary nanocomposites exhibited a remarkably higher response to NO2 at room temperature, and the response of the ternary nanocomposites to 60 ppm NO2 is 10 times larger than that of the Ni0-rGO under the circumstance of the equal specific surface area, indicating the important role of heterojunction. Significantly, the recovery rate of ternary nanocomposites was also accelerated compared to the bare NiO and the NiO-rGO. Here, we hope this work could provide a proper approach for further improvement of MOS-rGO based nanocomposites with even higher sensing performances. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.