Gas sensing properties of p-type semiconducting vanadium oxide nanotubes

Abstract Vanadium oxide nanotubes (VONTs) were synthesized using the V 2 O 5 powder as precursor with dodecylamine as structure-directing template via one-step hydrothermal way. The prepared VONTs sensors exhibit excellent sensing sensitivity and superior recovery property in detecting ethanol vapor. The response to the ethanol vapor and NO 2 gases confirms that the samples are of p-type behavior at 80 °C, which is associated with the presence of the protonated amine molecules in the VONTs. The sample changes to n-type behavior at 260 °C arising from the decomposition of the protonated amine molecules. The p-type VONTs have potential for development of a novel gas sensor.