Abstract
Palladium is used commonly to enhance the performance of chemoresistive metal-oxide gas sensors. Typically, this enhancement is attributed to the presence of Pd clusters on the surface of their metal-oxide support (i.e. SnO2). Possible Pd incorporation or embedding into the support rarely has been considered. Here, SnO2 particles (15 - 21 nm in diameter measured by N2 adsorption) with different Pd contents (0 - 3 mol%) were prepared by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). Leaching these particles with HNO3 and characterization by inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) indicated that only 36 - 60% of Pd have been removed (e.g., from the SnO2 surface). The rest was embedded within the SnO2 particles. Annealing prior to leaching decreased by ~30% that Pd surface content. Most interestingly, such SnO2 particles (with only embedded Pd) show higher sensor response to acetone, ethanol and CO at 350 °C compared to SnO2 particles containing both surface and embedded Pd (i.e. before leaching). As a result, such sensors can detect acetone with high (> 25) signal-to-noise ratio at levels down to 5 ppb at 50% relative humidity.
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Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported mainly by the ETH Zürich (Grant No. ETH-21 18-1) and partially by the Swiss National Science Foundation (R’EQUIP No. 177037 & 170729).
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Pineau, N.J., Keller, S.D., Güntner, A.T. et al. Palladium embedded in SnO2 enhances the sensitivity of flame-made chemoresistive gas sensors. Microchim Acta 187, 96 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-4080-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-4080-7