Fabrication of Au-decorated SnO2 nanoparticles with enhanced n-buthanol gas sensing properties

Stannic oxide nanoparticles with the different Au decorating contents are prepared by a simple hydrothermal method in this paper. The products are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrum (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns reveal that all the products are tetragonal phase of rutile SnO 2 crystal structure. The gas-sensing performance of the Au-decorated SnO 2 nanoparticles for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are studied. At its optimal operation temperature of 240 o C, the sensing properties of the Au-decorated SnO 2 nanoparticles to n-buthanol gas show a good gas sensing performances as low detection limit (1ppm), good selectivity and good repeatability. The highest sensing response of 6.0 at. % Au-decorated SnO 2 nanoparticles (251.23 for 200 ppm to n-buthanol) is over 21 times higher than that of pure SnO 2 (11.5). All results prove the potential of using Au-decorated SnO 2 for n-buthanol gas detection.