Paper EM+AS+EN+NS-FrM3
Ultra High Sensitive CO Sensors with Less Overhead: Influence of Doping Methods and Dopants on the CO Sensitivity of Cu, Pt and Pd Doped SnO₂ Pellets

Friday, October 23, 2015, 9:00 am, Room 211C

In this work, we report the synthesis, characterization and manufacturing of Cu, Pt and Pd doped SnO₂ pellets with ultra high sensitivities for CO atmospheres. To the best of our knowledge, we have accounted for the first time the ultra high CO sensitivities for Cu doped than Pt and Pd doped SnO₂ pellets. In order to obtain high sensitivities, we have employed novel methods, which are the mixture of chemical and physical synthesis methods. Non-spherical SnO₂ structures were prepared via two chemical synthesis routes using Urea (R1) and ammonia (R2) as precipitation agents. The resultant SnO₂ powders were doped with transition metal, Cu, and noble metals like Pt and Pd via two doping methods D1 and D2. In D1, the powders were bulk doped and then ball milled, whereas in D2, the powders were ball milled and then surface doped. All the powders obtained were later pressed using manual pressing machine to manufacture the SnO₂ pellets. The effect of synthesis routes, doping methods and dopants, on the structural, morphological and also on CO sensing were studied by different characterization techniques and reported with their detailed explanations. Interestingly, the Cu-SnO₂ pellets manufactured from the powders obtained by method D1R1, showed highest sensitivity around 1783 due to various reasons like uniform and small particle size, necks formation, inter-particle conductance and high oxygen adsorption due to stacking faults. All the reasons mentioned above were demonstrated by comparing the established sensor theory with our different experimental results obtained using XRD, Raman, SEM, HRTEM and sensitivity analysis.