SYNTHESIS OF HIGHLY STABLE SILVER-LOADED VERTICAL ZnO NANOWIRES ARRAY AND ITS ACETYLENE SENSING PROPERTIES

A silver-loaded one-dimensional (1D) vertical ZnO nanowires (NWs) array synthesized by a facile seed mediated hydrothermal-RF magnetron sputtering method has been investigated for the fabrication of a highly stable and reproducible acetylene (C2H2) gas sensor. Successful immobilization of silver nanoparticles (NPs) as a sensitizer on the ZnO NWs array significantly enhanced the C2H2 sensing properties and showed a stable sensing performance. The grown structure exhibited high response magnitude (30.8 at 1000ppm), short response time (43s) and excellent selectivity at 220∘C. The enhanced performance can probably be accounted for the effect of combining the highly orientated ZnO NWs and catalytically active silver-based network. The superior sensing features toward C2H2 along with broad detection range (1–1000ppm), outstanding stability and excellent reproducibility indicate that the sensor is a promising candidate for practical applications.