Synthesis and gas sensing properties of membrane template-grown hollow ZnO nanowires

One-dimensional, hollow nanostructured materials are among the most promising materials for sensing applications owing to their high surface area that facilitates the adsorption of target gases. Accordingly, for gas sensing studies, hollow ZnO nanowires (NWs) with different surface areas were successfully synthesized herein by using polycarbonate membranes with different pore sizes as templates, and deposition of ZnO via the atomic layer deposition technique. The sensing properties of the synthesized hollow ZnO NWs were examined for CO and NO2, revealing their comparative sensing performances with ZnO nanomaterials-based sensors reported in literature. This study highlights a novel way of synthesizing hollow ZnO NWs by using membrane template and their promising sensing properties as well.