Hierarchical Assembly of α-Fe2O3 Nanorods on Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes as a High-Performance Sensing Material for Gas Sensors

This paper presents a facile hydrolysis reaction and annealing for preparing a novel hierarchical nanoheterostructure via assembly of α-Fe2O3 nanorods onto multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) backbones. The as-synthesized nanocomposites were characterized using XRD (X-ray diffraction), FESEM (Field emission scanning electron microscopy), TEM (Transmission electron microscopy), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and BET (Surface Area and Porosity System). The observations showed uniform α-Fe2O3 nanorods approximately 100–200 nm in length and 50–100 nm in diameter that were hierarchically assembled onto the surface of the MWCNTs. The formation of the heterostructure was investigated by observing the evolution of the microstructure of the products at different reaction times. The X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) showed that the ability of the absorbing oxygen was enhanced by the formation of the heterostructure composites. Moreover, as a proof-of-concept presentation, the novel CNTs@α-Fe2O3 hierarchical...