Synthesis of porous Co3O4 nanonetworks to detect toluene at low concentration.

ABSTRACT

Porous Co3O4 nanonetworks (NNWs), converted from precursor CoOOH nanosheets, have been synthesized via a controllable chemical reaction route followed by calcination at 400 °C in air. The morphologies and microstructures of the precursor nanosheets and the final products were characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The growth mechanism of CoOOH nanosheets and the structural transformation processes of NNWs were investigated in detail. Significantly, the porous Co3O4 NNW based sensor showed an enhanced response to toluene gas at low concentration, which was mainly due to its porous neck-connected networks.