title: Ag Nanoparticle-Sensitized WO3 Hollow Nanosphere for Localized Surface Plasmon Enhanced Gas Sensors.
abstract: Ag nanoparticle (NP)-sensitized WO3 hollow nanospheres (Ag-WO3-HNSs) are fabricated via a simple sonochemical synthesis route. It is found that the Ag-WO3-HNS shows remarkable performance in gas sensors. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) images reveal that the Agx-WO3 adopts the HNS structure in which WO3 forms the outer shell framework and the Ag NPs are grown on the inner wall of the WO3 hollow sphere. The size of the Ag NPs can be controlled by adjusting the addition amount of WCl6 during the reaction. The sensor Agx-WO3 exhibits extremely high sensitivity and selectivity toward alcohol vapor. In particular, the Ag(15nm)-WO3 sensor shows significantly lower operating temperature (230 °C), superior detection limits as low as 0.09 ppb, and faster response (7 s). Light illumination was found to boost the sensor performance effectively, especially at 405 and 900 nm, where the light wavelength resonates with the absorption of Ag NPs and the surface oxygen vacancies of WO3, respectively. The improved sensor performance is attributed to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ningxia Normal University , Guyuan 756000, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fangxu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Mingli
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xianpei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Junqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology; School of Materials Science & Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University , Xi'an 710119, P. R. China.|Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shengzhong Frank
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Ag-WO3; alcohol; hollow nanosphere; plasmonic; sensor