High sensitivity ammonia (NH3) gas sensor based on nickel-doped ZnO (NZO) hexagonal microdisc like-nanostructures is reported in this work. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the undoped ZnO revealed interconnected hexagonal microdiscs transformed into hollow square shaped interconnected hexagonal microdiscs. NZO (6 wt%) showed higher response compared with other wt% and exhibited highest response of 15.1 when exposed to 100 ppm concentration of ammonia (NH3) gas at 150 degrees C. NZO (6 wt%) possessed good response time of 5.5 s at 100 ppm. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.