Preparation and room-temperature hydrogen sensing property of flower-like In2O3/SnS2 nanocomposite

Abstract

As one of the important sources of pollution-free clean energy, hydrogen has attracted great attention. However, hydrogen molecules are very small and prone to leakage during production, transmission and usage. Therefore, it has become a trend to design room temperature hydrogen sensor. In this work, a novel In2O3/SnS2 sensitive material was synthesized by hydrothermal method. The morphology and chemical composition of the samples were characterized, and the gas sensing properties of the samples were analyzed. Furthermore, a series of sensors were tested to evaluate gas sensor performance. Among the as-synthesized sensors, the IS-5-based sensor yielded a response signal of 339% for 1000 ppm H2 at 27 °C, which is 2.6 times higher than that achieved for the SnS2-based sensor (1.304–1000 ppm H2, 27 °C). The IS-5-based sensor exhibited specific selectivity for H2 (compare to methane, methanol, ethanol, propane and CO). The sensor based on In2O3/SnS2 (IS-5) shows favorable response performance to H2. The improvement of gas sensing performance may be related to its special morphology and In2O3/SnS2 (IS-5) heterojunction. In general, the sensor based on In2O3/SnS2(IS-5) has low operating temperature and excellent selectivity to H2.