Morphology-controlled porous α-Fe2O3/SnO2 nanorods with uniform surface heterostructures and their enhanced acetone gas-sensing properties.

Morphology-controlled porous α-Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 nanorods with uniform surface heterostructures have been fabricated by a facile surface modification of rod-like α-Fe 2 O 3 nanomaterials by changing the adding amount of Sn composition, displaying the excellent selectivity and sensitivity of gas-sensing to acetone. The introduction of SnO 2 nanoparticles had the great effects on tuning the crystal size, crystallinity, and surface status, as well as the structural stability and phase distribution of α-Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 nanorods. Compared to pure α-Fe 2 O 3 , α-Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 heterostructures can exhibit the optimal gas-sensing behavior with the sensitivity up to 53.1 and the response and recovery times decreasing to 9 and 2.5 s at the operating temperature of 260 °C, respectively. The enhanced gas-sensing performance can be mainly attributed to the combination of uniform porous structures, narrow size-distribution, large specific surface area, and heterostructures of the interface between α-Fe 2 O 3 and SnO 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]