Controllable construction of ZnSnO polyhedrons abundant in oxygen vacancies via cobalt doping and their acetone sensing performance.

Increasing attentions have been paid to the development of ZnSnO-based gas sensors for acetone detection, owing to their unique advantages of high electron mobility, low visible adsorption and excellent electrical conductivity. However, some intrinsic problems associated with low response remain to be satisfactorily resolved. Herein, cobalt (Co) doping was implemented in this work to simultaneously modulate the electronic structure and oxygen vacancy of ZnSnO, a series of ZnSnO doped with varying quantities of Co ions were harvested through a hydrothermal method. The results reveal that the sensor, fabricated using ZnSnO with the incorporation of 10 mol% Co ions, manifests exceptional response (109) to 100 ppm acetone at 260 °C, accompanied by a speedy response/recover time (21/11 s). Furthermore, the gas device exhibits excellent comprehensive properties, including an ultra-low theoretical limit of detection (25 ppb), reliable long-term stability, as well as good anti-humidity performance. It is concluded by a series of characterization techniques that large BET surface area and abundant oxygen vacancies conduce to the significant enhancement in sensing performance. This study sheds light on fundamental understanding of how to tailor high-performance ZnSnO-based sensing devices for toxic gas detection.