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Polymer g-C3N4 wrapping bundle-like ZnO nanorod heterostructures with enhanced gas sensing properties

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Abstract

The ZnO/g-C3N4 binary heterostructures were formed by two steps, then the firm connection between ZnO NRs and lamellar g-C3N4 was characterized through powder XRD, FESEM with EDS, TEM, XPS, and Thermogravimetric analysis. Then the gas sensing performances of ZnO/g-C3N4 nanoheterostructures were analyzed systematically by using ethanol as a molecular probe. The results revealed that the fabricated compositive sensor not only exhibited quick response/recovery characteristics in the whole operating temperature (OT) range of 200–300 °C but also got a maximum response of 14.29 toward 100 ppm of ethanol at the optimal OT of only 260 °C. Moreover, such heterostructures also demonstrated good selectivity and superb reproducibility to acetone among all the tested toxic gases, especially higher response and faster response-recovery speeds than the pristine ZnO sensor. The above ZnO/g-C3N4 heterostructures may also supply other novel applications in the aspects of lithium-ion batteries, photocatalysis, optical devices, and so on.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 91428203, 41473118, and 51762005), the BaGui Scholars Program Foundation (2014BGXZGX03), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province, China (Nos. 2016GXNSFBA380232 and 2017GXNSFAA198254).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China

    Liwei Wang, Hao Fu, Yinghui Wang, Kefu Yu & Shaopeng Wang

  2. Coral Reef Research Center of China, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China

    Liwei Wang, Yinghui Wang, Kefu Yu & Shaopeng Wang

  3. Guangxi Laboratory on the Study of Coral Reefs in the South China Sea, Nanning, 530003, China

    Liwei Wang, Yinghui Wang, Kefu Yu & Shaopeng Wang

  4. Department of Science and Technology, Shiyuan College of Guangxi Teachers Education University, Nanning, 530226, China

    Hongjie Liu

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  1. Liwei Wang
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  4. Yinghui Wang
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Correspondence to Yinghui Wang or Kefu Yu.

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Supporting Information for Polymer g-C3N4 wrapping bundle-like ZnO nanorod heterostructures with enhanced gas sensing properties (approximately 1.30 MB)

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Wang, L., Liu, H., Fu, H. et al. Polymer g-C3N4 wrapping bundle-like ZnO nanorod heterostructures with enhanced gas sensing properties. Journal of Materials Research 33, 1401–1410 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.37

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