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Hydrothermal and heat-treated synthesis of SnS nanostructures for VOCs sensing

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Abstract

Two-dimensional chalcogenides have made significant advances as chemiresistive gas sensors due to their high sensing response and low power consumption. However, their inherent morphological complexity, low thermal oxidation temperature, and poor conductivity pose as major obstacles to practical application. In this study, we introduced a synthesis method in combination of hydrothermal reaction and heat treatment to fabricate SnS-based sensing materials with different forms of two-dimensional nanostructure. During preparation, SnS2 with different morphologies were firstly synthesized via hydrothermal reaction, followed by thermal oxidation and nitrogen calcination, flower-like SnS nanostructure, and nanoflake SnS–SnO2 composite, respectively. The samples synthesized by this method demonstrate improved crystallinity, which can overcome the obstacle of poor conductivity. In comparison, the flower-like SnS nanostructure assembled by ultra-thin nanosheets demonstrates improved gas-sensitive performance over nanoflake SnS–SnO2 composite. At the working temperature of 200 °C, the SnS sensor shows a response value as high as 13.3- to 100-ppm ethanol. Besides, the sensor exhibits stable sensing performance and excellent recovery characteristics in response to ethanol. The preparation method proposed in this paper provides an effective approach for the development of high-performance two-dimensional chalcogenide gas sensing materials.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information files. Should any raw data files be needed in another format they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work is funded by Basic Research Project of Liaoning Provincial Department of Education (LJKM20220900).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Textile and Material Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China

    Ziheng Li, Mingxue Zhang, Zeyu Zhang, Hongshun Hao & Shuang Yan

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  1. Ziheng Li
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  2. Mingxue Zhang
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  3. Zeyu Zhang
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  4. Hongshun Hao
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  5. Shuang Yan
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Contributions

Writing, preparation of the original draft and investigation was done by LZH; conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, writing, reviewing, editing of the manuscript, supervision, and project administration were done by YS; writing, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition were done by HHS; conceptualization, methodology, writing, and reviewing were done by ZMX; writing, reviewing, editing of the manuscript, supervision, and project administration were done by ZZY. All the authors have read the manuscript and have approved this submission.

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Correspondence to Shuang Yan.

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Li, Z., Zhang, M., Zhang, Z. et al. Hydrothermal and heat-treated synthesis of SnS nanostructures for VOCs sensing. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 722 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12489-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12489-5

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