Tailoring Schottky junctions and surface defects in Au-decorated CuO for selective room-temperature NO2 detection

초록

Au-decorated CuO nanocomposite samples were synthesized using two consecutive hydrothermal processes. Appropriate Au nanoparticle loading induced oxygen vacancies and facilitated Schottky junction formation on the CuO nanowire surface. The optimized nanocomposite was subsequently tested as a room-temperature gas sensor for NO2 gas, exhibiting high selectivity and thus overcoming a significant limitation of other gas sensors based on metal oxide semiconductors. It was also found that the number of surface defects decreased at higher fabrication temperatures, while ohmic junctions were formed at higher Au loadings, weakening the gas-sensing performance of the resulting nanocomposite. Overall, this study presents a promising fabrication method that has the potential to be employed with a range of other materials for gas-sensing applications.

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