Nickel-doped tin oxide hollow nanofibers prepared by electrospinning for acetone sensing

In this work, pure and Ni-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers with porous structures were fabricated through combination of electrospinning technique and calcination procedure. The hollow SnO2 nanofibers were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and their gas sensing properties for acetone were also investigated. A high heating rate in calcination process would lead to the formation of hollow SnO2 nanofibers with a tube-like structure. Hollow Ni-doped SnO2 nanofibers could be prepared by adjusting Ni2+ concentration in the precursor solution using a facile process with appropriate thermal treatment. Comparative gas sensing properties revealed that Ni-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers exhibited a much higher response in detecting acetone vapor than both pure SnO2 hollow nanofibers and Ni-doped SnO2 solid nanofibers at the same temperature. The excellent sensing performances of Ni-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers were ascribed to its hollow-core structure and Ni doping.