title: Room temperature hydrogen gas sensitivity of nanocrystalline pure tin oxide.
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.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC), Mechanical Materials Aerospace Engineering Department (MMAE), University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seal
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005740:Gases / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature; D017971:Tin Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D017971:Tin Compounds; D006859:Hydrogen; C045358:stannic oxide