Construction of 1D/2D α-Fe2O3/SnO2 Hybrid Nanoarrays for Sub-ppm Acetone Detection

Exhaled acetone is one of the representative biomarkers for the noninvasive diagnosis of type-1 diabetes. In this work, we have applied a facile two-step chemical bath deposition method for acetone sensors based on α -Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 hybrid nanoarrays (HNAs), where one-dimensional (1D) FeOOH nanorods are in situ grown on the prefabricated 2D SnO 2 nanosheets for on-chip construction of 1D/2D HNAs. After annealing in air, ultrafine α -Fe 2 O 3 nanorods are homogenously distributed on the surface of SnO 2 nanosheet arrays (NSAs). Gas sensing results show that the α -Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 HNAs exhibit a greatly enhanced response to acetone (3.25 at 0.4 ppm) at a sub-ppm level compared with those based on pure SnO 2 NSAs (1.16 at 0.4 ppm) and pure α -Fe 2 O 3 nanorods (1.03 at 0.4 ppm), at an operating temperature of 340°C. The enhanced acetone sensing performance may be attributed to the formation of α -Fe 2 O 3 –SnO 2 n-n heterostructure with 1D/2D hybrid architectures. Moreover, the α -Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 HNAs also possess good reproducibility and selectivity toward acetone vapor, suggesting its potential application in breath acetone analysis.