LAUSR

In this paper, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires are synthesized by the simple and low-cost solvothermal route. The morphologies, crystalline structure, and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of ZnO nanowires are investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction and spectrophotometer, respectively. The results show that the as-synthesized ZnO nanowires are single crystalline with wurtzite structure of about 40–50 nm in diameter and several micrometers in length. Only one sharp PL peak, at 387 nm, is observed. Also, a gas sensor based on as-synthesized ZnO nanowires is built. Gas sensing investigations reveal that under optimum operating temperature (340 °C) at 500 ppm ethanol, the response sensitivity (S), response time, and recovery time of the sensor are 10.68, 6 and 26 s, respectively. Also, the ethanol sensing mechanism of the sensor is discussed in detail.