High performance acetylene sensor based on ZnO/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite

Sensing of acetylene (C₂H₂) has been carried out through synthesizing ZnO/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite using a solvothermal method with graphene oxide (GO) and Zn(NO₃)₂.6H₂O as the precursors. The morphology, crystal structure, and the compositional analysis of the synthesized materials were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The physical properties of the as-synthesized material exhibited rGO layers assorted with tiny ZnO nanoparticles (NPs), where rGO supposedly acted as a template in the synthesis process for promoting the preferential attachment of ZnO nanoparticles with rGO sheets and preventing agglomeration of the ZnO nanoparticles without significantly changing its morphology and crystal structure. From the experimental results, it was evident that the synthesized nanocomposite had a preferential detection of C₂H₂ gas with a high response value of 34%, good selectivity, low detection limit (30 ppm), and response/recovery time of ~ 100/28 sec at 250^oC. The results suggested that graphene oxide (GO) addition might be an effective method for improving C₂H₂ sensing performance of the ZnO based sensors which may provide challenges as well as more opportunities in the near future.