Nanopillar ZnO gas sensor for hydrogen and ethanol

Aligned zinc oxide nanorods were synthesized directly via a two-step solution approach on an Al2O3 tube, and were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The zinc oxide nanorods prepared were uniform with diameters of 10–30 nm and lengths about 1.4 μm. The response Sr (= Ra/Rg) of the aligned zinc oxide nanorod sensor reached 18.29 and 10.41 to 100 ppm ethanol and hydrogen, respectively, which was a two-fold increase compared with that reported in literature, demonstrating the potential for developing stable and sensitive gas sensors.