Low operating temperature toluene sensor based on novel α-Fe2O3/SnO2 heterostructure nanowire arrays

In this work, we reported a novel toluene sensor based on alpha-Fe2O3/SnO2 heterostructure nanowires arrays, which were synthesized via combining an ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (for the SnO2 nanowires arrays) method and the subsequent hydrothermal strategy (for the alpha-Fe2O3 nanorod branches). Various techniques were employed for the characterization of the structure and morphology of the as-obtained products. The results revealed that alpha-Fe2O3 nanorod branches grew on SnO2 nanowire arrays with an average length of about 800 nm. As a proof-of-concept demonstration of the function, such novel heterostructure nanowires arrays were used as the sensing material for gas sensors. As expected, the heterostructure composites exhibited good sensing performances for toluene, superior to a single component (SnO2 nanowires arrays). For example, the response of the alpha-Fe2O3/SnO2 composites was up to 5 times higher than that of the primary SnO2 nanowire arrays at 90 degrees C.