Enhanced ethanol-sensing characteristics of Au decorated In-doped SnO2 porous nanotubes at low working temperature

In this work, Au decorated In-doped SnO 2 (Au@In 2 O 3 -SnO 2 ) porous nanotubes (PNTs) were fabricated via electrospinning and a subsequent calcination treatment. The In-doped SnO 2 PNTs with various Au/Sn molar ratios possessed good ethanol sensing properties. As a result, the 3 % mol Au decorated In-doped SnO 2 PNTs had high response to ethanol (R a /R g = 316.8–100 ppm) and can detect ethanol down to 50 ppb at a low working temperature of 150 °C. In addition, the gas sensor also had high selectivity, good reversibility and long-term stability. The enhanced sensing performance was mainly ascribed to the increase of oxygen vacancies , catalytic activity of Au nanocatalysts, and porous structures . The sensing results demonstrated that Au@In 2 O 3 -SnO 2 PNTs had the great potential for ethanol detecting, and provide a facile method for rationally designing other types of gas sensors.