Highly enhanced acetone sensing performances of porous and single crystalline ZnO nanosheets: high percentage of exposed (100) facets working together with surface modification with Pd nanoparticles.

Porous and single crystalline ZnO nanosheets, which were synthesized by annealing hydrozincite Zn(5)(CO(3))(2)(OH)(6) nanoplates produced with a water/ethylene glycol solvothermal method, are used as building blocks to construct functional Pd-ZnO nanoarchitectures together with Pd nanoparticles based on a self-assembly approach. Chemical sensing performances of the ZnO nanosheets were investigated carefully before and after their surface modification with Pd nanoparticles. It was found that the chemical sensors made with porous ZnO nanosheets exhibit high selectivity and quick response for detecting acetone, because of the 2D ZnO nanocrystals exposed in (100) facets at high percentage. The performances of the acetone sensors can be further improved dramatically, after the surfaces of ZnO nanosheets are modified with Pd nanoparticles. Novel acetone sensors with enhanced response, selectivity and stability have been fabricated successfully by using nanoarchitectures consisting of ZnO nanosheets and Pd nanoparticles.