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ZnO; parallel-aligned nanofibrous film; electrospinning; sensing characteristics.

Parallel-aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofibrous films fabricated by using electrospinning technique were used in gas sensors for the detection of ethanol and formaldehyde. The morphologies and crystal structures of the films were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE–SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. FE–SEM results showed that ZnO nanofibres had an approximate diameter of 100–300 nm and consisted of hexagonal wurtzite structure ZnO nanocrystals with a primary particle diameter of 20–50 nm. The results of resistance–temperature characteristics and responses to ethanol and formaldehyde indicated that the parallelaligned ZnO nanofibrous film had a low activation energy (0.246 eV), a low optimum operating temperature and a high response. The response and recovery had a high rate in the initial stage and a low rate in the later stage. The parallel-aligned ZnO nanofibrous film had excellent potential application for formaldehyde sensor.

Zikui Bai¹ Weilin Xu¹ Changsheng Xie² Mingchao Dong³ Shunping Zhang² Jie Xu¹ Shili Xiao¹

1. Key Lab for Green Processing and Functionalization of New Textile Materials, Ministry of Education, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, P.R. China
2. State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die and Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China
3. Zhuxi County Environmental Protection Agency, Shiyan 442300, P.R. China

Manuscript received

13 October 2011

Manuscript revised

24 April 2012