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Abstract
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In this study, a simple inexpensive gas sensor, which uses polyaniline@ZnOhollow sphere hybrid films, is prepared with different mole percentages of ZnOhollow spheres (5–30 mol%) and combining hydrothermal andin-situchemicaloxidative polymerization methods. Polyaniline@ZnO hollow sphere hybrids areloaded on flexible polyethylene terephthalate substrates for rapid and selectivedetection of ammonia at room temperature. The morphology, structure, chem-ical functional group information and the specific surface area are, respectively,characterized by field emission-scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction,Fourier transform infrared and N2adsorption–desorption techniques. The bestsensing performance is realized for the polyaniline@20 mol% ZnO hollowsphere hybrid sensor, which is exposed to 10 ppm ammonia at room temper-ature. Moreover, this sensor exhibits a low detection limit of 500 ppb, excellentselectivity and good response/recovery times (140/136 s). This good sensingperformance can be attributed to the hollow structure of ZnO and the p–nheterojunction between the polyaniline and ZnO hollow spheres.
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