Highly sensitive and selective acetylene sensors based on p-n heterojunction of NiO nanoparticles on flower-like ZnO structures

Abstract Acetylene (C2H2) gas concentration is a key parameter in transformer monitoring. In current work, the selective acetylene sensors which based on flower-like ZnO structures with NiO nanoparticles were successfully fabricated. The NiO–ZnO composites were synthesized by two-step hydrothermal method. And various of characterization analyses had been applied to the exploration of crystal structure and the p-n heterojunction. According to the systematic gas sensitivity tests, the response of NiO–ZnO (5%) to 50 ppm C2H2 was 15.23 at 200 °C whereas the response of pure ZnO was 4.1 in the same condition. In addition, the response value of NiO–ZnO (5%) to 50 ppm C2H2 was 3.6 times to 50 ppm H2. Such a good gas-sensing property of NiO–ZnO composites is due to p-n heterojunction and high catalytic activity of NiO.