Synthesis of g-C(3)N(4)-Decorated ZnO Porous Hollow Microspheres for Room-Temperature Detection of CH(4) under UV-Light Illumination

UV light-assisted gas sensors based on metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) have attracted much attention in detecting flammable and explosive gases at room temperature. In this paper, graphite-based carbon nitride (g-C(3)N(4)) nanosheets-decorated ZnO porous hollow microspheres (PHMSs) with the size about 3~5 μm in diameter were successfully synthesized by annealing the solvothermally-synthesized Zn(5)(CO(3))(2)(OH)(6) PHMSs together with g-C(3)N(4). The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, FT-IR and XPS. The results indicated that the prepared g-C(3)N(4)/ZnO PHMSs were constructed by numerous loosely stacked ZnO nanoparticles of 20~30 nm in diameter. Gas sensing tests indicated that under UV light (365~385 nm) illumination, the sensors fabricated with g-C(3)N(4)/ZnO HPMSs showed an enhanced response and faster response speed than the pure ZnO counterpart at room temperature. In addition, the g-C(3)N(4)/ZnO sensor also exhibited good repeatability and long-term stability for CH(4) detection.