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MOF-templated synthesis of Ag@ZnO nanocages for UV-activated ethanol sensing

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Abstract

Porous Ag@ZnO hollow nanocages (HNCs) have been constructed by using Ag@ZIF-8 as precursor template. Mesoporous hollow nanostructures functionalized with evenly dispersed Ag nanocatalysts (~ 8 nm) have been achieved for Ag@ZnO HNCs. Both pure ZnO HNCs and Ag@ZnO HNCs exhibited UV-activated ethanol sensing responses at 180 °C. Under UV irradiation, Ag@ZnO HNCs exhibited a higher ethanol sensing response (3.3-fold improvement @ 100 ppm) in comparison with pristine ZnO HNCs. The Ag@ZnO HNCs also showed good selectivity and stability toward ethanol. UV-activated ethanol response was ascribed to the photoinduced electrons reacting with the absorbed oxygen molecules to create active O2−. After Ag functionalization, the further enhanced sensing properties of Ag@ZnO HNCs were attributed to the creation of Schottky junctions between Ag and ZnO nanoparticles, improved light utilization, and the local surface plasmon resonance effect of Ag nanoparticles.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12074236), the Science and Technology Program of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2023-JC-QN-0023), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. GK202002003, GK202203002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi’an, 710121, China

    Jinniu Zhang, Lu Li & Qiyi Zhao

  2. School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710062, China

    Jia Liu, Gang Li, Yumeng Liu, Ruyi Yang, Jianzhi Gao & Hongbing Lu

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  1. Jinniu Zhang
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  2. Jia Liu
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Contributions

JZ: Data curation, methodology, investigation, funding acquisition, software, writing—original draft preparation, project administration, supervision. JL: Methodology, investigation. GL: Methodology, investigation. YL: Methodology, investigation. RY: Methodology, investigation. LL: Investigation, resources. QZ: Investigation, resources. JG: Investigation, resources. HL: Conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, resources, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Jinniu Zhang or Hongbing Lu.

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Zhang, J., Liu, J., Li, G. et al. MOF-templated synthesis of Ag@ZnO nanocages for UV-activated ethanol sensing. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1381 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10753-8

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