SnO2 nanorods and hollow spheres: Controlled synthesis and gas sensing properties

In this paper, a controlled synthesis of rod and hollow sphere SnO2 nanostructures has been realized via a solvothermal reaction, without employing any other toxic organic solvents. The well-defined morphologies are obtained by simply adding sodium hydroxide to aqueous ethanol solution. The products are characterized by XRD, TEM and SEM. Growth mechanisms for these two nanostructures were proposed. Gas sensors were fabricated and an investigation into the structure-based gas-sensing properties has been conducted. Compared with SnO2 hollow spheres, the nanorods display much better gas sensing properties, which is mainly due to their facile electrons transportation and excellent thermal stability.