RF sputtered CuO anchored SnO2 for H2S gas sensor

Abstract

To achieve good living standards, it is critical to make high-performance toxic gas sensing devices for public safety, environmental pollutant control, industrial operations, and other applications. For this purpose, we demonstrate CuO anchored SnO 2 nanostructures for H 2 S gas sensors. The selectivity was improved by anchoring with CuO for a total 60 s duration at four equal consecutive cycles to achieve good selectivity towards H 2 S molecules. The pristine CuO shows instability and metallic behaviour when it is exposed to H 2 S for a longer time. Furthermore, the proposed gas sensor shows good selectivity toward H 2 S as compared to other gases H 2 , NO 2 , CO 2 , and NH 3 . The sensing response was measured at around 69 % at the optimal operating temperature of 150 °C. It is observed that CuS formation has better selectivity as compared to pristine SnO 2 and a slight improvement in sensitivity is observed. As a result, a promising strategy for designing and producing good-performance H 2 S gas sensors would be to CuO anchor on SnO 2 nanostructures. The proposed sensors may be integrated with IoT platforms and used for the detection of H 2 S in the sewer line and leak detection in the petroleum industry. • SnO 2 thin film was anchored with CuO at different time duration using RF sputtering for H 2 S gas sensing. • The sensor exhibits higher sensing response of 69 % at 150 ºC for 100 ppm of H 2 S with a LoD of 1 ppm. • Comparative analysis was performed for H 2 S gas detection for both SnO 2 and CuO/SnO 2 based sensors. • Excellent selectivity and slight improved sensitivity was observed with CuO/SnO 2 based gas sensor.