The mesoscopic structure of flower-like ZnO nanorods for acetone detection

The flower-like zinc oxide mesoscopic structure was successfully synthesized by a novel solution route with the assistance of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). These ZnO nanoflowers were composed of uniform and long nanorods. PVP and ammonia water played a key role in nanorods growth and the possible growth mechanism was tentatively proposed based on the experiment results. Furthermore, the gas sensor based on this mesoscopic structure with large specific surface area has an optimum operating temperature of 420 degree C and exhibits high sensitivity, quick response and good selectivity for acetone. The sensitivity is about 1170 and the response time is around 7s for 1000ppm acetone. The results suggest that the mesoscopic structure of flower-like ZnO nanorods is a good candidate for fabricating effective acetone sensor.