Gas-sensing performances of Cd-doped ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by a surfactant-mediated method for n-butanol gas

Abstract Zinc oxide nanoparticles with the different Cd doping contents were prepared by with a surfactant-mediated method in this paper. The effects of Cd doping on the gas sensing properties of the ZnO nanoparticles were studied. The morphology and microstructure of as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD); scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), respectively. The results reveal that all the products are the high crystalline hexagonal wurtzite ZnO crystal structure. The gas-sensing characteristics of the Cd doped ZnO nanoparticles for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were investigated. At its optimal operation temperature of 300 °C, the sensing properties of the Cd doped ZnO nanoparticles for n-butanol gas exhibit a high-performance gas sensing performances including high gas response, good selectivity, response/recovery time, and repeatability as well as stability. Especially, its response reaches 130 for 100 ppm n-butanol of ZnO nanoparticles with 2.5% Cd doping. Those values demonstrate the potential of using as-prepared Cd doped ZnO nanoparticles for n-butanol gas detection, making them to be promising candidates for practical detectors to n-butanol gas. Apart from these, the mechanism related to the advanced properties was also investigated and presented.