Two-Dimensional Zinc Oxide Nanostructures for Gas Sensor Applications

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, due to their unique physical and chemical properties, are showing great potential in catalysis and electronic/optoelectronic devices. Moreover, thanks to the high surface to volume ratio, 2D materials provide a large specific surface area for the adsorption of molecules, making them efficient in chemical sensing applications. ZnO, owing to its many advantages such as high sensitivity, stability, and low cost, has been one of the most investigated materials for gas sensing. Many ZnO nanostructures have been used to fabricate efficient gas sensors for the detection of various hazardous and toxic gases. This review summarizes most of the research articles focused on the investigation of 2D ZnO structures including nanosheets, nanowalls, nanoflakes, nanoplates, nanodisks, and hierarchically assembled nanostructures as a sensitive material for conductometric gas sensors. The synthesis of the materials and the sensing performances such as sensitivity, selectivity, response, and recovery times as well as the main influencing factors are summarized for each work. Moreover, the effect of mainly exposed crystal facets of the nanostructures on sensitivity towards different gases is also discussed.