High-Performance Ethanol Sensor Based On Self-Assembled BaTiO3/ZnO Composite Hierarchical Nanostructure

Excessive emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has caused serious harm to the ecological environment and human survival. It is necessary to develop gas sensors with high response, outstanding selectivity, and low power consumption to provide basic protection for human health environment. In this work, BaTiO3 nanospheres are prepared by solution method, and BaTiO3/ZnO composites are further synthesized based on facile hydrothermal technique. The gas sensitive investigations show that the response of BaTiO3/ZnO composite sensor to 100 ppm ethanol is reach up to 94, and the optimal operating temperature is significantly reduced. The response time of BaTiO3/ZnO is reduced to 66s, and full recovery can be achieved within 162s. In general, the performance of BaTiO3/ZnO nanocomposite sensors is better than that of pure BaTiO3 nanospheres and ZnO nanosheets, which may be related to the unique morphology, improved surface properties of BaTiO3/ZnO composites and the n-n heterojunction effect. Finally, the gas-sensing mechanism of the as-prepared BaTiO3/ZnO semiconductor in air and ethanol is discussed in detail.