Highly sensitive formaldehyde gas sensors based on Y-doped SnO2 hierarchical flower-shaped nanostructures

In this work, we have successfully prepared Y-doped SnO2 hierarchical flower-like nanostructures through a facile one-step hydrothermal method for the purpose of improving the formaldehyde gas sensing performance of conventional SnO2 semiconductor nanomaterials. The products were characterized by diverse techniques, which revealed that trivalent Y cations have been introduced into the crystal lattice of SnO2 and they exhibited lots of regular flower-like nanostructures consisting of several layers of rough and porous flakes. At an optimal working temperature of 180 degrees C, the fabricated gas sensor based on Y-doped SnO2 shown much better gas sensing properties to formaldehyde compared with SnO2 due to the combination of this distinctive three-dimensional hierarchical flower-like nanostructures and doping of Y ions. In particular, the detectable formaldehyde minimum limit has been reduced to 1 ppm. Consequently, Y-doped SnO2 hierarchical flower-like nanostructures are expected to become ideal gas sensing materials of highly sensitive gas sensors for formaldehyde detection due to their excellent gas sensing performance. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.