Investigation on Sensing Performance of Highly Doped Sb/SnO<sub>2</sub>

oleh: Zhifu Feng, Andrea Gaiardo, Matteo Valt, Barbara Fabbri, Davide Casotti, Soufiane Krik, Lia Vanzetti, Michele Della Ciana, Simona Fioravanti, Stefano Caramori, Alberto Rota, Vincenzo Guidi

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-02-01

Deskripsi

Tin dioxide (SnO<sub>2</sub>) is the most-used semiconductor for gas sensing applications. However, lack of selectivity and humidity influence limit its potential usage. Antimony (Sb) doped SnO<sub>2</sub> showed unique electrical and chemical properties, since the introduction of Sb ions leads to the creation of a new shallow band level and of oxygen vacancies acting as donors in SnO<sub>2</sub>. Although low-doped SnO<sub>2</sub>:Sb demonstrated an improvement of the sensing performance compared to pure SnO<sub>2</sub>, there is a lack of investigation on this material. To fill this gap, we focused this work on the study of gas sensing properties of highly doped SnO<sub>2</sub>:Sb. Morphology, crystal structure and elemental composition were characterized, highlighting that Sb doping hinders SnO<sub>2</sub> grain growth and decreases crystallinity slightly, while lattice parameters expand after the introduction of Sb ions into the SnO<sub>2</sub> crystal. XRF and EDS confirmed the high purity of the SnO<sub>2</sub>:Sb powders, and XPS highlighted a higher Sb concentration compared to XRF and EDS results, due to a partial Sb segregation on superficial layers of Sb/SnO<sub>2</sub>. Then, the samples were exposed to different gases, highlighting a high selectivity to NO<sub>2</sub> with a good sensitivity and a limited influence of humidity. Lastly, an interpretation of the sensing mechanism vs. NO<sub>2</sub> was proposed.