Sputter-Grown Pd-Capped CuO Thin Films for a Highly Sensitive and Selective Hydrogen Gas Sensor
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-020-08588-8 2020 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Sputter-Grown Pd-Capped CuO Thin Films for a Highly Sensitive and Selective Hydrogen Gas Sensor PRASHANT YADAV,1 ASHWANI KUMAR,2 AMIT SANGER,3 YOGENDRA K. GAUTAM,1,4 and BEER PAL SINGH1,5 1.—Smart Materials and Sensor Laboratory, Department of Physics, Ch. Charan Singh University Meerut, Meerut, U.P 250004, India. 2.—Nanoscience Laboratory, Institute Instrumentation Centre, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India. 3.—Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, 19 University Road, New Delhi 110 007, India. 4.—e-mail: [email protected]. 5.—e-mail: [email protected]
In the present work, hydrogen gas sensing properties of palladium-capped copper oxide (Pd/CuO) thin films have been investigated. The Pd/CuO thin films were deposited on glass substrate for different deposition times (10– 30 min) using direct current magnetron sputtering. The Pd/CuO thin films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for their structural, morphological and compositional properties, respectively. The Pd/CuO thin film sensor deposited for 10 min presents a remarkable sensing performance with fast response/recovery time of 10 s/50 s for hydrogen gas at a concentration of (1000 ppm) and optimum operating temperature of 300C. The sensor is observed to be highly selective towards hydrogen (H2) gas compared to the other gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) and ammonia (NH3). The sensor is stable under high humidity conditions (60% RH). The studied Pd/CuO thin film sensor can be used to design a simple and low-cost sensor to detect low concentrations of H2 gas for use in hydrogen-driven industries. Key words: Semiconducting metal oxides, CuO thin films, hydrogen sensor, sputtering, FESEM, XPS
INTRODUCTION The demand for energy is increasing daily and, therefore, alternate sources of energy are needed.1 The development of renewable energy sources is a basic requirement worldwide because the available fossil fuels are insufficient to serve human needs forever, and their use additionally produces harmful emissions.2 Hydrogen (H2) gas is abundant in nature and it has great potential to be used as a clean energy source.3,4 Nowadays, hydrogen gas is widely utilized as a fuel in automobiles, spacecraft, aircraft and various industrial applications.5,6 Hydrogen is a colourless and odourless gas.4
(Received July 16, 2020; accepted October 22, 2020)
However, the low ignition energy (2 9 105 kg m2 s2) and extensively explosive nature when its concentration exceeds the explosion limit (4%) in the atmosphere make it difficult to be used as energy source.7 Hence, a high-performance H2 gas sensor with high sensitivity and selectivity is needed to detect hydrogen leakage at storage places and transportation containers for different technological and industrial applications.8,9 Among the various types of gas sensors, semiconducting metal oxi
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