Controllable Fabrication of Porous ZnO Nanofibers by Electrospun with Enhanced Acetone Sensing Property

Porous ZnO nanofibers were prepared through the electrospun method using zinc acetate as zinc source and polyvinylpyrrolidone as thickener agent. Under adjusting the amount of zinc acetate, the synthesized porous ZnO nanofibers show various structures (fiber, tube, and fiber-in-tube). And the formation mechanism was discussed in detail. These porous ZnO samples show the uniform structure about 200 to 300 nm in diameter and several microns in length. All the fibers are composed of many ZnO nanoparticles (20–30 nm) that assemble to form the porous structure and induce the large surface area and high pore volume of the sample. These porous ZnO nanofibers were configured as high performance sensors for acetone sensing, showing high sensitivity (S = 243.3 at 500 ppm), low detection limit (10 ppm), fast response/ recovery (7/17 s), and very good selectivity.