Growth of Zinc Oxide Nanowires and Nanobelts for Gas Sensing Applications

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is a very useful as a solid state gas sensor material. In chemical sensing the surface and interface interactions between the analyte molecules and the sensing material is all but important that is read through the changes in electrical conductance. In that sense, nano-objects with a large surface atom/bulk atom ratio, like nanoparticles and nanowires, are potentially the best chemical sensors. The mechanism envisioned involves the adsorption (and eventually diffusion) of the analyte molecule at the surface that induces a change in the electrical resistance of the nano-object. The most convenient way to measure changes in electrical resistance in such devices is to obtain the specific material as nanowires or as connected nanoparticles. Here, we will discuss about a low-temperature wet-chemical process of synthesizing ZnO nanoparticles, nanowires and nanobelts for application as gas sensors.