Highly sensitive formaldehyde sensors based on CuO/ZnO composite nanofibrous mats using porous cellulose acetate fibers as templates

An innovative formaldehyde sensor based on CuO/ZnO composite nanofibrous mats (C-NFMs) coated quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), which is capable of stable determination of formaldehyde gas at ambient temperatures sensitively and selectively, has been successfully fabricated. Triaxial and highly porous C-NFMs with high surface area (126.53 m2 g-1) were synthesized by electrospinning a sol-gel cellulose acetate (CA)/CuAc2/ZnAc2 complex solution and following by calcination process. Benefiting from the unique heterojunction structure, immense pore interconnectivity and large surface area of C-NFMs, the as-developed QCM sensors exhibited an extremely low limit of detection (LOD) down to 26 ppb and a limit of quantification value equals to 87 ppb. Besides, the C-NFMs coated QCM sensors also demonstrated short response times (80s), the long-term stability during 3 weeks as well as good selectivity to formaldehyde over diverse volatile organic compounds. The sorption equilibrium in the adsorption process of QCM coated sensors was well met with the Freundlich model, which certified the heterogeneous adsorption between formaldehyde gas and C-NFMs.