Facile fabrication of SiC/ZnO composite and its enhanced sensitivity for detection of NO

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an attractive material for gas sensors, and various ZnO-based sensors have been developed to detect gas pollution. In this work, a series of SiC/ZnO composites were fabricated by incorporating silicon carbide nanocrystals (SiC NCs) into ZnO microspheres by a grinding method. The SiC/ZnO composite exhibited a significantly enhanced gas sensitivity response toward NO gas in comparison to ZnO. The test revealed that the response of the composite was 251.1 for 100 ppm of nitrogen monoxide (NO), and the detection limit was as low as 100 ppb. Through spectral and comparative analyses, it has been indicated that the active functional groups of the SiC NCs have a substantial impact on the detection of NO, and the corresponding mechanism is studied and discussed. This work offers a simple strategy for the fabrication of SiC/ZnO material with enhanced sensitivity in sensing applications.