Preparation of meso-porous SnO2 fibers with enhanced sensitivity for n-butanol

Meso-porous SnO2 fibers were synthesized using a solvothermal method with metaplexis fruit as the bio-template. The products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, high resolution scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements. Results show that SnO2 fibers present a high specific surface area of 73.665 m(2)/g and a meso-porous structure with the pore size of 7.821 nm, and the crystal size of SnO2 is about 6.5 +/- 0.5 nm. The gas sensing performance of the prepared SnO2 fibers toward several volatile organic compounds was investigated. The results show that the meso-porous SnO2 fibers were highly sensitive and selective to n-butanol.