Room temperature hydrogen gas sensitivity of nanocrystalline pure tin oxide

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2004 Jan-Feb;4(1-2):141-5. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2004.022.

Abstract

Nanocrystalline (6-8 nm) tin oxide (SnO2) thin film (100-150 nm) sensor is synthesized via sol-gel dip-coating process. The thin film is characterized using focused ion-beam microscopy (FIB) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) techniques to determine the film thickness and the nanocrystallite size. The utilization of nanocrystalline pure-SnO2 thin film to sense a typical reducing gas such as hydrogen, at room temperature, is demonstrated in this investigation. The grain growth behavior of nanocrystalline pure-SnO2 is analyzed, which shows very low activation energy (9 kJ/mol) for the grain growth within the nanocrystallite size range of 3-20 nm. This low activation energy value is correlated, via excess oxygen-ion vacancy concentration, with the room temperature hydrogen gas sensitivity of the nanocrystalline pure-SnO2 thin film sensor.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adsorption
  • Crystallization / methods*
  • Electrochemistry / instrumentation*
  • Electrochemistry / methods
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Gases / analysis
  • Gases / chemistry
  • Hydrogen / analysis*
  • Hydrogen / chemistry
  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Nanotechnology / instrumentation*
  • Nanotechnology / methods
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Surface Properties
  • Temperature
  • Tin Compounds / chemistry*
  • Transducers*

Substances

  • Gases
  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Tin Compounds
  • Hydrogen
  • stannic oxide