Photochemical sensitive study of Au@CuO flower-like materials

Abstract CuO flower-like materials (FMs) were fabricated by hydrothermal method and then reduced to obtain Au@CuO FMs by in-situ reduction reaction. The performance of the Au@CuO FMs sensor was evaluated by detecting volatile and toxic gases such as ethanol, isopropanol, methanol, and formaldehyde under ultraviolet (UV) light illumination. It is found that the optimum working temperatures of the CuO FMs sensor and the Au@CuO FMs one are 240 and 100℃ respectively. The response of the Au@CuO FMs can reach 95.3 to 1000 ppm ethanol, being about 7 times stronger than that of the CuO FMs sensor. Moreover, the response of the Au@CuO FMs sensor to 1000 ppm ethanol increased from 95.3 to 174 under UV irradiation, nearly 2 times as large as that in dark. Accordingly, its corresponding LOD decreased from 99.8 to 78 ppb. Therefore, the Au@CuO FMs are a promising candidate to detect ethanol with excellent response and selectivity.