Simple Solid-State Chemical Synthesis of ZnSnO3 Nanocubes and Their Application as Gas Sensors

New ZnSnO3 nanocubes were synthesized by a simple PEG-induced solid-state chemical reaction between metal salts and NaOH; this process is cheap and proceeds in a relatively simple manner. The uniform cubic nanostructures were fully characterized, The gas-sensing properties of ZnSnO3 were investigated in detail. The results indicated that ZnSnO3 nanocubes possess good gas-sensing properties for ethanol and methanal; thus, these nanocubes show excellent potential for ethanol and methanal sensors. This strategy is expected to be extendable to other composite nanomaterials with special morphologies in solid-state routes by selecting an appropriate reaction and its corresponding inducing reagent. (C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)