SnO2/ZnO hierarchical heterostructures have been successfully synthesized by combining electrospinning technique and hydrothermal method. Various morphologies of the secondary ZnO nanostructures including nanorods (NRs) and nanosheets (NSs) can be tailored by adding surfactants. Photocatalytic performance of the heterostructures was investigated and obvious enhancement was demonstrated in degra...

Sensor technology is one of the most significant technology for the future with a constantly growing number of applications, ranging from toxic gas detection, manufacturing process monitoring to medical diagnosis and health monitoring. Among the different existing sensor technologies, the semiconductor sensors are most attractive for their high sensitivity, small size and light-weight construct...

Ternary Cu/ZnO/metal oxide catalysts are prepared through the co-precipitation method under strict control of parameters like pH, calcination conditions, and precipitation temperature in a systematic manner. The metal oxides applied in this study consist of Al2O3, ZrO2, La2O3 and Ce2O3. The distinction of this work in comparison with similar research is a comprehensive investigatation of the ca...

This paper presents material and gas sensing properties of Pt/SnO2 nanowires/SiC metal oxide semiconductor devices towards hydrogen. The SnO2 nanowires were deposited onto the SiC substrates by vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism. The material properties of the sensors were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Th...

In this chapter we present recent advances in the study of metal oxide surfaces and put them in relation to gas sensing properties. A reoccurring scheme is the dependence of chemical surface properties on the crystallographic orientation of the surface. This dependence will become more important in gas sensing applications as nanomaterials with controlled crystal shapes are being designed. In p...

double layer zno/sno2 thin film resistive gas sensors were fabricated by successive pvd of those oxides onto porcelain substrates. the metallic contacts were provided by electron beam evaporation of platinum onto substrates prior to deposition of the gas sensitive layers. deposits were thermally annealed at different temperatures. it was shown that the activation energy of electrical conduction...

Silicon dioxide (SiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles are widely used in various applications, raising issues regarding the possible adverse effects of these metal oxide nanoparticles on human cells. In this study, we determined the cytotoxic effects of differently charged SiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles, with mean sizes of either 100 or 20 nm, on the U373MG human glioblastoma cell line. The ove...

Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been developed in a variety of environmental studies to address adverse effects of a wide range of toxicants. In the present study, we compared the toxicities of three metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) including TiO(2)-NPs, ZnO-NPs, and SiO(2)-NPs with the same nanosize (30 nm) after prolonged exposure from L1-larvae to adult at environmental relevant concentra...

In the present work we have investigated the relationships existing between the optical properties and the growth mechanism, microstructure and surface roughness of SnO2 and ZnO oxide films prepared by magnetron sputtering under conditions resembling those utilized in industry. Thin films of these oxides with different thicknesses were characterized by atomic force microscopy, glancing incidenc...

Injecting charge carriers into the mobile bands of an inorganic oxide insulator (for example, SiO2, HfO2) is a highly complicated task, or even impossible without external energy sources such as photons. This is because oxide insulators exhibit very low electron affinity and high ionization energy levels. Here we show that a ZnO layer acting as a cathode buffer layer permits direct electron inj...