A novel snowflake-like SnO2 hierarchical architecture with superior gas sensing properties

Highlights: • A novel snowflake-like hierarchical SnO2 nanostructure was reported. • The snowflake-like SnO₂ sensor shows a significantly enhanced gas response. • A possible growth mechanism for the snowflake-like architectures was proposed. Snowflake-like SnO₂ hierarchical architecture has been synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method and followed by calcination. The SnO₂ hierarchical structures are assembled with thin nanoflakes blocks, which look like snowflake shape. A possible mechanism for the formation of the SnO₂ hierarchical structures is speculated. Moreover, gas sensing tests show that the sensor based on snowflake-like SnO₂ architectures exhibited excellent gas sensing properties. The enhancement may be attributed to its unique structures, in which the porous feature on the snowflake surface could further increase the active surface area of the materials and provide facile pathways for the target gas.