TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of doping, annealing temperature and visible optical excitation on CuO-ZnO nanocomposites’ acetone sensing properties and introduce an attractive candidate for acetone detection at about room temperature.Design/methodology/approach ZnO nanoparticles doped with CuO were prepared by sol-gel method, and the structure and morphology were characterized via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. The photoelectric responses of CuO-ZnO nanocomposites to cetone under the irradiation of visible light were investigated at about 30°C. The photoelectric response mechanism was also discussed with the model of double Schottky.Findings The doping of CuO enhanced performance of ZnO nanoparticles in terms of the photoelectric responses and the gas response and selectivity to acetone of ZnO nanoparticles, in addition, decreasing the operating temperature to about 30ºC. The optimum performance was obtained by 4.17% CuO-ZnO nanocomposites. Even at the operating temperature, about 30ºC, the response to 1,000 ppm acetone was significantly increased to 579.24 under the visible light irradiation.Practical implications The sensor fabricated by 4.17% CuO-ZnO nanocomposites exhibited excellent acetone-sensing characteristics at about 30ºC. It is promising to be applied in low power and miniature acetone gas sensors.Originality/value In the present research, a new nanocomposite material of CuO-ZnO was prepared by Sol-gel method. The optimum gas sensing properties to acetone were obtained by 4.17% CuO-ZnO nanocomposites at about 30ºC operating temperature when it was irradiated by visible light with the wavelength more than 420 nm. VL - 38 IS - 3 SN - 0260-2288 DO - 10.1108/SR-08-2017-0158 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/SR-08-2017-0158 AU - Miao Yuxin AU - Pan Guofeng AU - Sun Caixuan AU - He Ping AU - Cao Guanlong AU - Luo Chao AU - Zhang Li AU - Li Hongliang PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Enhanced photoelectric responses induced by visible light of acetone gas sensors based on CuO-ZnO nanocomposites at about room temperature T2 - Sensor Review PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 311 EP - 320 Y2 - 2024/03/28 ER -