Au modified ZnO nanowires for ethanol gas sensing

We demonstrated the application of sensors for ethanol gas detection. The ZnO nanowires based sensors with interdigital electrodes were fabricated, and a platform was constructed to test the properties of the sensors. To acquire better response and shorter response/recovery time, the ZnO nanowires were modified with Au. The ethanol gas sensing performance of the pure sensors and those modified with Au nanoparticles were investigated for comparison, and the optimal test temperature of 350°C was obtained. We found that the response/recovery time for the modified sensor towards 500 ppm of the ethanol gas was reduced by 1.35 and 1.42 times compared with the pure sensors, and the sensitivities towards 500 and 10 ppm of the ethanol gas were also increased by 3.18 and 1.35 times, respectively. These proved the enhancement of the Au nanoparticles in the ZnO nanowires based sensors for ethanol gas sensing.