Highly sensitive and selective ethanol sensors using porous SnO2 hollow spheres

Porous SnO2 hollow nanospheres have been prepared by a direct precipitation method using carbon spheres as template. The structural and morphological are investigated by XRD, SEM, TEM and BET. Both of the formation and sensing mechanism have been discussed. Most importantly, the gas sensor based on these porous SnO2 hollow nanospheres exhibited perfect sensing performance toward ethanol. The enhancement in gas sensing properties was attributed to their unique structures, including the large specific surface area (41.42 m(2)/g), hollow structure and porous feature. The results obtained in this study indicate that porous SnO2 hollow nanospheres are potential candidates for fabricating effective ethanol sensors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.