We report for the first time the successful synthesis of palladium (Pd) nanoparticle (NP)-decorated tungsten trioxide (WO3) nanoneedles (NNs) via a two-step aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition approach. Morphological, structural, and elemental composition analysis revealed that a Pd(acac)2 precursor was very suitable to decorate WO3 NNs with uniform and well-dispersed PdO NPs. Gas-sensing results revealed that decoration with PdO NPs led to an ultrasensitive and selective hydrogen (H2) gas sensor (sensor response peaks at 1670 at 500 ppm of H2) with low operating temperature (150 °C). The response of decorated NNs is 755 times higher than that of bare WO3 NNs. Additionally, at a temperature near that of the ambient temperature (50 °C), the response of this sensor toward the same concentration of H2 was 23, which is higher than that of some promising sensors reported in the literature. Finally, humidity measurements showed that PdO/WO3 sensors displayed low-cross-sensitivity toward water vapor, compared to bare WO3 sensors. The addition of PdO NPs helps to minimize the effect of ambient humidity on the sensor response.

This article presents a review of recent research efforts and developments for the fabrication of metal-oxide gas sensors using chemical vapour deposition (CVD), presenting its potential advantages as a materials synthesis technique for gas sensors along with a discussion of their sensing performance. Thin films typically have poorer gas sensing performance compared to traditional screen printed equivalents, attributed to reduced porosity, but the ability to integrate materials directly with the sensor platform provides important process benefits compared to competing synthetic techniques. We conclude that these advantages are likely to drive increased interest in the use of CVD for gas sensor materials over the next decade, whilst the ability to manipulate deposition conditions to alter microstructure can help mitigate the potentially reduced performance in thin films, hence the current prospects for use of CVD in this field look excellent.

Herein we demonstrate tungsten oxide (WO3 nanostructures based resistive type sensors for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas sensing utility. The WO3 dynamic layers have been deposited upon alumina substrates pre-patterned with gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes. For comparative study, two distinct WO3 nanostructures (S-425 and S-450) have been synthesized using Aerosol Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (AACVD) technique at varied deposition temperatures i.e., 425 and 450 °C, respectively. The gas detecting properties of both sensors were investigated against varied concentration (0–60 ppm) of H2S gas levels. The electrical resistance of fabricated gas detectors has been observed at DC bias of 5 V and low operating temperature 250 °C. Specifically, when concentration of H2S gas increases from 0–10 ppm, average resistance of the S-425 and S-450 gas sensors was observed to decrease by 96.5% and 97.6%, respectively. In general, the sensing mechanism of gas sensors proposed in this work can be associated with ionosorption of oxygen species over WO3 nanostructured surfaces. However, the significantly enhanced sensing performance of S-450 sensor may be attributed to improved crystallinity in its structure and improved ions adsorption/desorption kinetics at nanorods surface morphology.

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