Synthesis of Fe doped ZnO nanowire arrays that detect formaldehyde gas

Owing to their chemical and thermal stability and doping effects on providing electrons to the conduction band, doped ZnO nanowires have generated interest for use in electronic devices. Here we report hydrothermally grown Fe-doped ZnO nanowires and their gas-sensing properties. The synthesized nanowires have a high crystallinity and are 60 nm in diameter and 1.7 μm in length. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are employed to understand the doping effects on the microstructures and gas sensing properties. When the Fe-doped ZnO nanowire arrays were evaluated for gas sensing, responses were recorded through changes in temperature and gas concentration. Gas sensors consisting of ZnO nanowires doped with 3∼5 at.% Fe showed optimum formaldehyde (HCHO) sensing performance at each working temperature.