Influence of PVA templates on the synthesis of interconnected and long-winded electrospun V2O5 nanowires – Acetone sensor

[Display omitted] •Acetone is one of the spoilage markers of fruits and vegetables.•Different molecular weights of PVA template was used to prepare V2O5 nanowires.•Hierarchically inter-connected smaller grains were observed from V2O5 nanowires.•The response of 97 was observed for 50 ppm of acetone at ambient temperature.•Response and recovery times were observed to be 49 and 19 s respectively. V2O5 nanowires based vapor sensors were fabricated using calcinated electrospun nanofibers. Precursors of ammonium metavanadate with three different polyvinyl alcohol solutions with molecular weights 14,000, 1,15,000 and 1,60,000 g mol−1 were used to synthesize three differentiated V2O5 nanowires such as NC1, NC2 and NC3. The as-deposited fibers were calcined at 600 °C for 3 h to remove polymer content so as to obtain V2O5 nanowires. X-ray diffraction pattern confirmed the formation of polycrystalline with the orthorhombic structure of V2O5 nanowires. FE-SEM images revealed the formation of highly interconnected and long-winded V2O5 nanowires with an average width of 80, 82 and 146 nm for NC1, NC2 and NC3 respectively. Carrier mobility of NC1, NC2 and NC3 nanowires measured using Hall measurement system were found to be 253, 33 and 99 cm2V−1s−1 respectively. V2O5 nanowires (NC1) were highly selective towards acetone with a sensing response of 97 towards 50 ppm at ambient atmosphere (30 °C). The response and recovery times were 49 and 19 s respectively towards 50 ppm of acetone.