Chemical and Electronic Sensitization Effects Promoted By Noble Metal Nanoparticles on Gas Sensors Based on SnO Nanobelts
Authors: Barbosa Martin S , Suman Pedro H , Kim Jae Jin , Tuller Harry L. , Orlandi Marcelo O 
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Semiconducting metal oxides (SMOx) are the most studied materials for gas sensing applications due to their outstanding capacity to detect flammable and toxic gases, and their low-cost processing and ease of handling. [1,2]

Many strategies have been developed attempting to achieve materials with improved sensor performance, including surface functionalization. The most common SMOx surface functionalization species are noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) given the possibilities to present both chemical and electronic sensitization effects.[3]

This work reports on the gas sensing response of pristine and Pt and Pd decorated stannous oxide nanobelts. The responses of devices to different analytes (H2, CO and NO2) were measured in dry air baseline atmosphere as function of the analyte concentration (1–1000 ppm) and temperature (150-350 °C).

Method

Stannous oxide nanobelts were synthesized by a carbothermal reduction method using a mixture of SnO2 powder (Sigma-Aldrich, 99.9% purity) and carbon black (Union Carbide, > 99% purity) in the molar ratio of 1.5:1 (SnO2:C) as starting material.[4] The nanoparticles (Pt and Pd) used to functionalize the surface of nanobelts were prepared by the polyol method.

Samples were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to study their morphology and crystalline structure.

Suspensions of pristine and functionalized materials were deposited onto interdigitated platinum electrode arrays to perform the gas sensor measurements. The devices were placed in a temperature-controlled tubular furnace chamber, where the electric current was monitored under a constant applied voltage. Synthetic dry air was used as baseline and the analytes (NO2, H2 and CO) were introduced into the chamber using mass flow controllers. Gas sensor measurements were performed ranging from 150 °C to 350 °C.

Results and Conclusions

SEM and TEM results showed that obtained materials were nanobelts in the SnO phase. Moreover, functionalization with noble metal nanoparticles was successful, presenting disperse nanoparticles (< 15 nm) over nanobelts surface.

About the gas sensing measurements, pristine devices are both sensitive and selective for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) molecules between 100 and 250 °C. In addition, both Pd- and Pt- functionalized devices present excellent selectivity to H2 at 300 and 350 °C. Moreover, Pt- functionalized device presented good selectivity for high concentrations of CO (>200 ppm) at low temperatures (100 and 150 °C). Then, results showed that noble metal decorated devices exhibited enhanced chemical sensitization, resulting in increased sensitivity upon exposure to reducing gases at different working temperatures. Differences in enhancement levels are attributed to strong electronic sensitization effects that are dependent on the respective Pt and Pd work functions and the unique SnO band structure, characterized by a small band gap (0.6 eV). Values showed that while Pt0 and Pt2+ promotes a high potential barrier with SnO nanobelts, Pd0 does not have this effect. Based on these findings, we propose an array based on pristine and NPs-functionalized SnO structures capable of detecting and distinguishing reducing and oxidizing gases. Furthermore, electronic sensitization mechanism is elucidated based on the band diagram of materials.

Results presented here are important to engineer high performance sensor devices by selecting the better work function of nanoparticles, depending on the Fermi level of semiconductor.

References

[1] A. Goldoni, V. Alijani, L. Sangaletti and L. D’Arsiè, Electrochim. Acta, 2018, 266, 139–150.

[2] A. Dey, Mater. Sci. Eng. B Solid-State Mater. Adv. Technol., 2018, 229, 206–217.

[3] M. E. Franke, T. J. Koplin and U. Simon, Small, 2006, 2, 36–50.

[4] P. H. Suman and M. O. Orlandi,
J. Nanoparticle Res., 2011, 13, 2081–2088.