An enhanced ultra-fast responding ethanol gas sensor based on Ag functionalized CuO nanoribbons at room-temperature

An ultra-fast responding ethanol gas sensor based on the Ag-functionalized CuO nanoribbons was fabricated by a wet chemical method. Results indicated that Ag nanoparticles were on the surface of the CuO nanoribbons in the form of metallic Ag. The gas sensor performance based on CuO nanoribbons was remarkably enhanced by decorating with Ag nanoparticles. All results reveal that the Ag-CuO nanoribbons exhibit higher response and ultra-fast response time characteristic than CuO nanoribbons at room temperature. Particularly, the response time of the gas sensor based on Ag-CuO nanoribbons was about 2 s, which was five times shorter than that of the bare CuO nanoribbons.