Probing the highly efficient room temperature ammonia gas sensing properties of a luminescent ZnO nanowire array prepared via an AAO-assisted template route

Abstract

Here, we report the facile synthesis of a highly ordered luminescent ZnO nanowire array using a low temperature anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) template route which can be economically produced in large scale quantity. The as-synthesized nanowires have diameters ranging from 60 to 70 nm and length ∼11 μm. The photoluminescence spectrum reveals that the AAO/ZnO assembly has a strong green emission peak at 490 nm upon excitation at a wavelength of 406 nm. Furthermore, the ZnO nanowire array-based gas sensor has been fabricated by a simple micromechanical technique and its NH₃ gas sensing properties have been explored thoroughly. The fabricated gas sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity and fast response to NH₃ gas at room temperature. Moreover, for 50 ppm NH₃ concentration, the observed value of sensitivity is around 68%, while the response and recovery times are 28 and 29 seconds, respectively. The present synthesis technique to produce a highly ordered ZnO nanowire array and a fabricated gas sensor has great potential to push the low cost gas sensing nanotechnology.