Hydrothermal synthesis of different 3D SnO 2 nanostructures and their gas-sensing properties

Different morphologies of 3D SnO 2 nanostructures, including sphere-like, net-like, and flower-like, have been successfully synthesised via a facile hydrothermal method. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The possible growth mechanism of different SnO 2 nanostructures was discussed in detail. We found that the citric acid and PEG play significant roles in synthesizing the flower-like and net-like nanostructures. Furthermore, the gas-sensing properties of the samples were investigated towards the reducing ethanol gas. The results indicate that the flower-like and net-like SnO 2 show larger gas sensing properties than sphere-like SnO 2 .