Significant effect of SDS on the optimum operating temperature of ZnO nanosheets gas-sensitive materials

Abstract

Many methods have been used to reduce the operational energy consumption of ZnO gas-sensitive material effectively. In this paper, different morphologies of ZnO nanomaterials are prepared in the anionic hydrophilic surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS) with varying concentrations as soft templates by hydrothermal method. The influence of SDS concentrations is investigated on the morphology of materials under the conditions of a weak alkali environment with the same pH. Their gas sensitivity after annealing with the same temperature and time. The phase structures and morphologies of all samples are characterized by XRD and FESEM, respectively. The gas-sensitive properties are analyzed by CGS-1TP. Interestingly, the experimental results show that the optimal working temperature of ZnO gas-sensitive materials containing low concentration SDS is reduced by nearly 55% than that containing 10 times this concentration, and its sensitivity is also slightly improved. The possible mechanism by which the SDS concentration affects the gas sensitivity of the material is also proposed.