Fabrication and Characterization of Highly Sensitive Acetone Chemical Sensor Based on ZnO Nanoballs

Qu Zhou; ChangXiang Hong; Yao Yao; Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim; Lingna Xu; Rajesh Kumar; Sumaia Mohamed Talballa; S H Kim; Ahmad Umar

doi:10.3390/ma10070799

Fabrication and Characterization of Highly Sensitive Acetone Chemical Sensor Based on ZnO Nanoballs

Materials (Basel). 2017 Jul 14;10(7):799. doi: 10.3390/ma10070799.

Authors

Qu Zhou¹, ChangXiang Hong², Yao Yao³, Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim⁴, Lingna Xu⁵, Rajesh Kumar⁶, Sumaia Mohamed Talballa⁷, S H Kim^{8

9}, Ahmad Umar^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. zhouqul@swu.edu.cn.
² College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. hcx111000@163.com.
³ College of Communication Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China. yaoyao386@yahoo.com.
⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Najran University, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia. shakiroon4health@gmail.com.
⁵ College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. lingnaxu@cqu.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Jagdish Chandra DAV College, Dasuya 144205, Punjab, India. rk.ash2k7@gmail.com.
⁷ Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Najran University, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia. omsuhieb@yahoo.com.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Arts, Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia. semikim77@gmail.com.
⁹ Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia. semikim77@gmail.com.
¹⁰ Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Arts, Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia. ahmadumar786@gmail.com.
¹¹ Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia. ahmadumar786@gmail.com.

Abstract

Highly sensitive acetone chemical sensor was fabricated using ZnO nanoballs modified silver electrode. A low temperature, facile, template-free hydrothermal technique was adopted to synthesize the ZnO nanoballs with an average diameter of 80 ± 10 nm. The XRD and UV-Vis. studies confirmed the excellent crystallinity and optical properties of the synthesized ZnO nanoballs. The electrochemical sensing performance of the ZnO nanoballs modified AgE towards the detection of acetone was executed by simple current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. The sensitivity value of ∼472.33 μA·mM^-1·cm^-2 and linear dynamic range (LDR) of 0.5 mM-3.0 mM with a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.97064 were obtained from the calibration graph. Experimental limit of detection (LOD) for ZnO nanoballs modified AgE was found to be 0.5 mM.

Keywords: ZnO; acetone; current–voltage; electrochemical; nanoballs; sensor.