Zinc Oxide-Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes Nanocomposites for Carbon Monoxide Gas Sensor Application

Zinc oxide (ZnO)/multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composites based sensors with different ZnO concentrations were fabricated to improve carbon monoxide (CO) gas sensing properties in comparison to the sensors based on bare MWCNTs. To study the structure, morphology and elemental composition of the resultant products, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were carried out. It has been observed that as the concentration of ZnO is increased more and more ZnO nanoparticles in the form of nodes get attached to MWCNTs resulting the reduction in average diameter of MWCNTs. The typical response of ZnO/MWCNTs composites based gas sensors for different CO concentrations (40, 100, 140 and 200 ppm) was studied by using very advanced sensing setup attached to I–V measurement system. Different sensing parameters such as: resistive response, sensitivity and response time were estimated at room temperature for all the fabricated sensors. The results indicated that the sensor based on nanocomposite which has 30 mg ZnO dispersed on 20 mg MWCNTs showing highest sensitivity and fastest response. All the sensors showed response times ranging from 8 to 23 seconds. The sensing mechanism behind the sensors based on ZnO/MWCNTs nanocomposites for CO gas at room temperature is also discussed in the present report.