Preparation and Ethanol Sensing Properties of ZnO Nanofibers

ZnO nanofibers with an average diameter of about 90 nm were prepared by an electrospinning method combined with a calcination process. The as-electrospun nanofibers before and after calcination were characterized by means of differential thermal analysis（DTA）, thermal gravimetric analysis（TGA）, X-ray diffraction（XRD） and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. The fibers after calcination at 600 °C belong to the hexagonal wurtzite structure. The sensor based on ZnO nanofibers exhibited excellent ethanol sensing properties at 206 °C such as good linear dependence in the low concentration（1―100 μL/L）, high response, and good selectivity. Fast response（less than 2 s） and recovery（about 16 s） were also observed in our investigations.