SYNTHESIS OF HIGHLY STABLE SILVER-LOADED VERTICAL ZnO NANOWIRES ARRAY AND ITS ACETYLENE SENSING PROPERTIES

A silver-loaded one-dimensional (1D) vertical ZnO nanowires (NWs) array synthesized by a facile seed mediated hydrothermal-RF magnetron sputtering method has been investigated for the fabrication of a highly stable and reproducible acetylene (C2H2) gas sensor. Successful immobilization of silver nanoparticles (NPs) as a sensitizer on the ZnO NWs array significantly enhanced the C2H2 sensing properties and showed a stable sensing performance. The grown structure exhibited high response magnitude (30.8 at 1000 ppm), short response time (43 s) and excellent selectivity at 220 degrees C. The enhanced performance can probably be accounted for the effect of combining the highly orientated ZnO NWs and catalytically active silver-based network. The superior sensing features toward C2H2 along with broad detection range (1-1000 ppm), outstanding stability and excellent reproducibility indicate that the sensor is a promising candidate for practical applications.