Porous and single crystalline ZnO nanosheets, which were synthesized by annealing hydrozincite Zn(5)(CO(3))(2)(OH)(6) nanoplates produced with a water/ethylene glycol solvothermal method, are used as building blocks to construct functional Pd-ZnO nanoarchitectures together with Pd nanoparticles based on a self-assembly approach. Chemical sensing performances of the ZnO nanosheets were investigated carefully before and after their surface modification with Pd nanoparticles. It was found that the chemical sensors made with porous ZnO nanosheets exhibit high selectivity and quick response for detecting acetone, because of the 2D ZnO nanocrystals exposed in (100) facets at high percentage. The performances of the acetone sensors can be further improved dramatically, after the surfaces of ZnO nanosheets are modified with Pd nanoparticles. Novel acetone sensors with enhanced response, selectivity and stability have been fabricated successfully by using nanoarchitectures consisting of ZnO nanosheets and Pd nanoparticles.

The composites of polypyrrole (PPY) and MnO2 have been prepared through chemical oxidation of pyrrole monomer and MnO2 suspension with ammonium peroxysulfate at low temperature. The morphology and structure of materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermal gravity analysis ‐ differential thermal gravity (TG‐DTG), and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The electrochemical properties of the composite were investigated by galvanostatic charge–discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The specific capacitance of the composite electrode is 352.8 F/g at a current of 8 mA/cm2 in Na2SO4 electrolyte of 0.5 mol/L, which is much higher than that of 246.2 F/g and 103.5 F/g of PPY and MnO2, respectively. A convenient and effective technique has been developed to fabricate composite materials of PPY and MnO2 promising for designing new capacitors. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

No abstract

No abstract