High-sensitivity, high-selectivity, and fast-recovery-speed triethylamine sensor based on ZnO micropyramids prepared by molten salt growth method

ZnO micropyramids had been successfully synthesized by an economical and environmental molten salt method (MSM). Compared with the reported works, we made a comprehensively and deeply sensing research for the ZnO micropyramids based triethylamine (TEA) sensors. The results of characterization reveal that the as-prepared ZnO crystallized sufficiently and have high purity. The sensors based on ZnO micropyramids have better TEA sensing performances, for instance higher response, better selectivity, and faster recovery speed than commercial ZnO. The response of ZnO micropyramids sensors can reach to 45 for 50 ppm of TEA. Moreover, the detection limit can also be as low as 2 ppm. These results indicate that the ZnO micropyramids synthesized by MSM are highly promising candidates for TEA gas detector. The space-charge layer model and the oxygen vacancies theory have also been proposed to interpret the gas sensing performance of ZnO micropyramids.