Interlaced nanoflake-assembled flower-like hierarchical ZnO microspheres prepared by bisolvents and their sensing properties to ethanol

Abstract Interlaced nanoflake-assembled flower-like hierarchical ZnO microspheres have been prepared by bisolvents which was the mixture of water and ethylene glycol. The bisolvent made the ZnO nanoflakes grow in different directions and therefore the ZnO nanoflakes could be interlacedly assembled into flower-like hierarchical ZnO microspheres. XRD, SEM and TEM were used to characterize the synthesized samples of the flower-like hierarchical ZnO microspheres. The samples exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity to ethanol. The lowest detection concentration was 10 ppb. Compared with the traditional flower-like hierarchical ZnO structures prepared by water solvent, the flower-like hierarchical ZnO microspheres prepared by bisolvents exhibited a little longer response time but much shorter recovery time.