Photoelectric HS Sensing Based on Electrospun Hollow CuO-SnO Nanotubes at Room Temperature.

Pure tin oxide (SnO) as a typical conductometric hydrogen sulfide (HS) gas-sensing material always suffers from limited sensitivity, elevated operation temperature, and poor selectivity. To overcome these hindrances, in this work, hollow CuO-SnO nanotubes were successfully electrospun for room-temperature (25 °C) trace HS detection under blue light activation. Among all SnO-based candidates, a pure SnO sensor showed no signal, even toward 10 ppm, while the 1% CuO-SnO sensor achieved a limit of detection (LoD) value of 2.5 ppm, a large response of 4.7, and a short response/recovery time of 21/61 s toward 10 ppm HS, as well as nice repeatability, long-term stability, and selectivity. This excellent performance could be ascribed to the one-dimensional (1D) hollow nanostructure, abundant p-n heterojunctions, and the photoelectric effect of the CuO-SnO nanotubes. The proposed design strategies cater to the demanding requirements of high sensitivity and low power consumption in future application scenarios such as Internet of Things and smart optoelectronic systems.