Synthesis and ethanol sensing properties of ZnSnO3 nanowires -: art. no. 233101

ZnSnO3 nanowires in mass production have been synthesized via thermal evaporation of ZnO, SnO, and graphite mixture powders. X-ray powder diffraction results show that these nanowires are of ZnSnO3 crystal structure. These nanowires have diameters ranging from 20 to 90 nm and lengths of several ten micrometers. Gas sensors fabricated from these ZnSnO3 nanowires show a very high sensitivity to ethanol gas and the sensitivity is up to about 42 against 500 ppm ethanol gas at the operating temperature of 300 degrees C. Both the response and the recovery time are about 1 s. Mass production and good sensitivities of the nanowires indicate their potential applications in sensor technology at the industry level. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.