Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

DOI

10.3390/app142310959

Publication Title

Applied Sciences

Volume

14

Issue

23

Pages

10959 (1-14)

Abstract

We report a new synthesis method for multiple-walled nested thin-film nanostructures by combining hydrothermal growth methods with atomic layer deposition (ALD) thin-film technology and sacrificial films, thereby increasing the surface-to-volume ratio to improve the sensing performance of novel ZnO gas sensors. Single-crystal ZnO nanorods serve as the core of the nanostructure assembly and were synthesized hydrothermally on fine-grained ALD ZnO seed films. Subsequently, the ZnO core nanotubes were coated with alternating sacrificial coaxial 3D wrap-around ALD Al2O3 films and ALD ZnO films. Basically, the center nanorod was coated with an ALD 3D wrap-around Al₂O₃ sacrificial layer to realize a nested coaxial ZnO thin-film nanotube. To increase the surface-to-volume ratio of the nested multiple-film nanostructure, both the front and backside of the nested coaxial ZnO films must be exposed by selectively removing the intermittent Al₂O₃ sacrificial films. The selective removal of the sacrificial films exposes the front and backside of the free-standing ZnO films for interaction with target gases during sensing operation while steadily increasing the surface-to-volume ratio. The sensing response of the novel ZnO gas sensor architecture with nested nanotubes achieved a maximum 150% enhancement at low temperature compared to a conventional ZnO nanorod sensor.

Rights

© 2024 by the authors.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Data Availability

Article states: "The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors."

Original Publication Citation

Lin, P. T., Zhang, L. S., Zhang, K., & Baumgart, H. (2024). Advanced nested coaxial thin-film ZnO nanostructures synthesized by atomic layer deposition for improved sensing performance. Applied Sciences, 14(23), 1-14, Article 10959. https://doi.org/10.3390/app142310959

ORCID

0000-0002-1191-4532 (Lin), 0000-0001-8272-2151 (Baumgart)

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