Heterogeneous reduced graphene oxide decorated ZnO
nanorods as highly sensitive gas sensing platform
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology South Korea
The metal oxide-based gas sensors usually have high operating temperature and low sensitivity. Here we demonstrate high-performance NO2 sensors based on heterogeneous rGO decorated ZnO nanorods nanocomposites. The optimized ZnO nanorod sensor, decorated with 1 wt.% rGO, exhibits a higher sensitivity of 1400% and faster response and recovery of 0.17% at relatively low temperature of 100 °C against NO2 gas when compared to the undecorated ZnO sensor. The experiment results were justified by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation, confirming that change in the gas sensitivity with the catalyst loading is due to the contest between the two materials. And the excess of catalytic layer dominates over metal oxide layer and its resistance leading to the lower sensitivity. The approach suggested in this work may lead to the realization of more sensitive gas sensors.
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