Soft template synthesis of high selectivity mesoporous SnO2 gas sensors

Mesoporous SnO2 was synthesized using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide(CTAB)as supermolecule-template by hydrothermal method followed by calcining under different temperature in air.X-ray diffraction analysis(XRD)and transmission electron microscopy(TEM)techniques were used to characterize the structure of mesoporous SnO2.The results indicated that the gas sensors prepared by using mesoporous SnO2 after calcination at 400℃ showed quick response and recovery to ethanol at 200℃.It was also found that the mesostructure SnO2 with small particle size had higher sensitivity and selectivity to C2H5OH than the SnO2 nanoparticles the particle size of which is 20 nm synthesized by sol-gel method.