Hierarchical SnO 2 nanoflower sensitized by BNQDs enhances the gas sensing performances to BTEX.

In this study, the SnO 2 nanoflowers with hierarchical structures sensitized by boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs) were prepared through a simple hydrothermal method. It was applied for the detection of the BTEX vapors. Further investigation showed that the response value of SnO 2 sensitized by different amounts of BNQDs to the BTEX gases have a certain improvement. Especially 10-BNQDs/SnO 2 gas sensor exhibited a significant improvement in gas sensing performance and its response values to different BTEX gases was increased up to 2-4 folds compared with the intrinsic SnO 2 sensor. In addition, SnO 2 nanoflowers based gas sensor showed surprisingly fast response and recovery time for BTEX gases with 1-2 s. That can be attributed to the sensitization of BNQDs and the hierarchical structure of SnO 2 nanoflowers, which provided an easy channel for the gas diffusion. An economically viable gas sensor based on BNQDs sensitized SnO 2 nanoflowers exhibited a great potential in BTEX gas detection due to the simple synthesis method, environmentally friendly raw materials and excellent gas sensing performance.