Room Temperature Hydrogen Sensor

Due to the recent public awareness of global warming and sustainable economic growth, there has been a growing interest in alternative clean energy sources. Hydrogen is considered as a clean fuel for the next generation. One of the technical challenges related to the use of hydrogen is safe monitoring of the hydrogen leak during separation, purification and transportation. For detecting various gases, chemiresistor-type gas sensors have been widely studied and used due to their well-established detection scheme and low cost. However, it is known that many of them have the limited sensitivity and slow response time, when used at low temperature conditions. In our work, a sensor based on Schottky barriers at the electrode/sensing material interface showed promising results that can be utilized for developing fast and highly sensitive gas sensors. Our hydrogen sensor was designed and fabricated based on indium oxide (In2O3)-doped tin oxide (SnO2) semiconductor nanoparticles with platinum (Pt) nanoclusters in combination with interdigitated electrodes. The sensor showed the sensitivity as high as $10^7%$ (Rair/Rgas) and the detection limit as low as 30 ppm. The sensor characteristics could be obtained via optimized materials synthesis route and sensor electrode design. Not only the contribution of electrical resistance from the film itself but also the interfacial effect was identified as an important factor that contribute significantly to the overall sensor characteristics. This promises the applicability of the developed sensor for monitoring hydrogen leak at room temperature.