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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

Sampling and Pretreatment of Tooth Enamel Carbonate for Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis
Published on: August 15, 2018
Simultaneous engineering of the surface (oxygen/amorphous carbon) and interface (amorphous carbon/ZnO) of ZnO using a
Jimyeong Park1, Minseo Kim1, Changhyun Jin2
1Department of Nano & Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Sangju 37224, the Republic of Korea.
Introduction:
Surface and interface engineering of metal oxide semiconductors is important for improving their gas-sensing performance.
Objectives:
This study aimed to simultaneously engineer the surface and interface of ZnO porous nanosheets (PNSs) using a simple one-spoon amorphous carbon deposition (OSaCD) technique and to investigate its effect on NO2 gas-sensing performance.
Methods:
Amorphous carbon/ZnO porous nanosheets (aC/ZnO PNSs) were synthesized using an innovative OSaCD coating technique combined with water quenching during flame chemical vapor deposition (FCVD). The coating characteristics were tuned by adjusting simple processing parameters.
Results:
The incorporation of amorphous carbon (aC) enhanced NO2 gas-sensing performance at both the surface and interfacial levels. At the surface, this improvement arose from interactions among oxygen species, the target gas, and aC, whereas at the interface, it was associated with the aC/ZnO junction. An enhanced sensor response of 18.8 ± 1.2 was achieved at an NO2 concentration of 4 ppm at 200 °C. Notably, the sensor was capable of detecting NO2 at concentrations as low as 200 ppb. This enhanced performance was attributed to the expansion of the surface electron depletion layer and the reduction of oxygen vacancies at the interface.
Conclusion:
Owing to the intrinsic fluidity of the OSaCD process, this strategy is broadly applicable and can potentially be extended beyond specific material systems, morphologies, compositions, or degrees of crystallinity.
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