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Oxygen adsorption on ZrO2-loaded SnO2 gas sensors in humid atmosphere

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Abstract

Oxygen adsorption on the surface of particles plays a key role in gas sensing for SnO2-based resistive-type gas sensors in a humid atmosphere. In this study, we added an extremely small amount of ZrO2 on the SnO2 surface to activate oxygen adsorption and enhance the sensor response of a SnO2-based gas sensor in a humid atmosphere. We evaluated the oxygen adsorption properties and sensor response to 200 ppm H2 in a humid atmosphere (96%) based on variations in the measured electrical resistance. The adsorption of O− and O2− ions was activated by a small loading (0.033 mol%) of ZrO2, and the resulting ZrO2–SnO2 composite nanoparticles were in the deep electron-depleted state. This led to a high sensor response of ZrO2–SnO2 to H2 in a humid atmosphere. The results demonstrate that surface modification using an extremely small amount of ZrO2 was effective in improving the response of a SnO2-based gas sensor in a humid atmosphere.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI), Grant Numbers JP16H04219 and JP17K17941. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan

    Koichi Suematsu, Ken Watanabe & Kengo Shimanoe

  2. Department of Molecular and Material Science, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Science, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan

    Hotaka Uchino & Takaharu Mizukami

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  1. Koichi Suematsu
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  2. Hotaka Uchino
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  3. Takaharu Mizukami
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Correspondence to Koichi Suematsu.

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Suematsu, K., Uchino, H., Mizukami, T. et al. Oxygen adsorption on ZrO2-loaded SnO2 gas sensors in humid atmosphere. J Mater Sci 54, 3135–3143 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-3020-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-3020-y

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