Pt nanoparticle-decorated ZnO nanowire sensors for detecting benzene at room temperature

Room temperature gas sensing ability for low concentrations of benzene was successfully realized with Pt nanoparticle-decorated networked ZnO nanowire sensors. For decoration of Pt nanoparticles, gamma-ray radiolysis was used. The Pt decoration greatly enhanced benzene sensing performances. Importantly, even at room temperature, ppm level benzene was clearly detected, which is likely to be due to the combined effect of electronic and chemical sensitizations by Pt nanoparticles.