Nanocomposites of ZnO Nanorods In-Situ Grown on Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Ethanol Sensing
Fanli Meng, Xin-You Meng, Yuanlong Chang, Zhenyu Yuan, Hua Zhang, Medhat Ibrahim, Hanan Elhaes, I.S. Yahia, Hongliang Gao
Abstract
ZnO nanorods/graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposites were prepared using a two-step seed method. Characterizations including scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis confirmed that a well-designed 1D ZnO on 2D g-C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> nanostructure was achieved. Gas sensing test of the synthesized ZnO/g-C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> nanocomposites concluded that g-C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> essentially increased the sensitivity. The ZnO/g-C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> nanocomposite tend to perform better to ethanol than other volatile organic compounds. The detection mechanism of the ZnO nanorods on g-C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> has been discussed in detail.