Synthesis of porous ZnO nanospheres for gas sensor and photocatalysis

Monodispersed porous ZnO nanospheres with diameters about 400–600 nm were successfully fabricated by a facile and effective cationic surfactant assisted selective etching strategy. The as-synthesized ZnO materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and N 2 adsorption–desorption. These samples were used as the gas sensor, showing the high, stable and fast response to acetone, revealing the potential application as gas sensor to detect acetone. In addition, the photocatalytic degradation property of the porous ZnO nanospheres for methyl orange (MO) under UV irradiation was investigated. The degradation efficiency of MO reaches 96 % of the porous ZnO samples after 50 min of UV-light irradiation.