Concave Cu2O octahedral nanoparticles as an advanced sensing material for benzene (C6H6) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) detection

We report a facile and efficient method for the synthesis of novel concave Cu2O octahedral nanostructure. The concave Cu2O octahedral nanostructure has an average diameter of 400 nm. Moreover, the Cu2O nanorods were also prepared by controlling the hydroxylamine hydrochloride (NH2OH center dot HCl) concentrations. The concave Cu2O octahedral nanostructures were evaluated as a sensing materials for benzene (C6H6) detection at operating temperature of 230 degrees C and the results reveal that it has excellent sensing dependence to C6H6 concentration changes. Interestingly, The concave Cu2O octahedral nanostructure also has good sensing response to NO2 at relatively low operating temperatures of 50 degrees C with high response of 4.3 and the response and recovery time shorter than 20 and 131 s to 20 ppm, respectively. The multifunctional concave Cu2O octahedral nanostructures would be promising functional nanomaterials in sensor fields. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.