Plasma-produced phase-pure cuprous oxide nanowires for methane gas sensing
- School of Energy Research, Xiamen University, Xiamen City, Fujian Province 361005 (China)
- School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052 (Australia)
- Plasma Nanoscience Laboratories, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Lindfield, New South Wales 2070 (Australia)
Phase-selective synthesis of copper oxide nanowires is warranted by several applications, yet it remains challenging because of the narrow windows of the suitable temperature and precursor gas composition in thermal processes. Here, we report on the room-temperature synthesis of small-diameter, large-area, uniform, and phase-pure Cu{sub 2}O nanowires by exposing copper films to a custom-designed low-pressure, thermally non-equilibrium, high-density (typically, the electron number density is in the range of 10{sup 11}–10{sup 13} cm{sup −3}) inductively coupled plasmas. The mechanism of the plasma-enabled phase selectivity is proposed. The gas sensors based on the synthesized Cu{sub 2}O nanowires feature fast response and recovery for the low-temperature (∼140 °C) detection of methane gas in comparison with polycrystalline Cu{sub 2}O thin film-based gas sensors. Specifically, at a methane concentration of 4%, the response and the recovery times of the Cu{sub 2}O nanowire-based gas sensors are 125 and 147 s, respectively. The Cu{sub 2}O nanowire-based gas sensors have a potential for applications in the environmental monitoring, chemical industry, mining industry, and several other emerging areas.
- OSTI ID:
- 22271140
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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