Highly porous CdO nanowires: preparation based on hydroxy- and carbonate-containing cadmium compound precursor nanowires, gas sensing and optical properties.

Highly porous cadmium oxide (CdO) nanowires have been prepared by calcining the hydroxy- and carbonate-containing cadmium compound precursor nanowires. The large-scale precursor nanowires were synthesized through a hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize and analyze the as-synthesized precursor nanowires as well as the calcined products. It was revealed that the wire-like morphology of the precursor was fundamentally retained during the process of calcination and the CdO nanowires obtained were polycrystalline with highly porous structures. In order to illustrate the formation mechanism of the porous structures, the morphology and composition evolutions of the precursor nanowires under different stages of the calcining process were further investigated via SEM, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared (IR) absorbance spectroscopy. Gas sensing has been explored for the sensor device fabricated with highly porous CdO nanowires, which demonstrates that it has good response owing to its special structures and great selectivity to NO(x). Furthermore, the UV-visible and photoluminescence spectra of highly porous CdO nanowires have also been investigated.