Controllable construction of multi-shelled ZnSnO3 hollow microspheres as high-performance sensing material for acetone detection

Multi-shelled hollow structures have been drawing wide attention in various fields because of their large surface area , short diffusion path and less agglomerated configuration. Herein, ZnSnO 3 hollow microspheres with controllable shell numbers have been prepared by a facile solvothermal reaction and following annealing treatment. The test results show that multi-shelled ZnSnO 3 hollow microspheres exhibit excellent acetone sensing performance, which is superior than that of double-shelled samples. In particular, multi-shelled ZnSnO 3 hollow microspheres not only show high responses of 105.1 and rapid response/recovery speed (1/18 s) to 100 ppm acetone, but also exhibit good repeatability, long-term stability and anti-humidity properties. Furthermore, they can easily distinguish healthy breath from simulated diabetic breath. And they still show rapid response/recovery speed in actual breath detection, which is beneficial to the achievement of real-time detection. The enhanced sensing performance has been studied systematically. Thus, multi-shelled ZnSnO 3 hollow microspheres have a great potential for the diagnosis of diabetes.