Novel chemoresistive CH4 sensor with 10 ppm sensitivity based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes functionalized with SnO2 nanocrystals

Humayun, Md Tanim; Divan, Ralu; Liu, Yuzi; Gundel, Lara; Solomon, Paul A.; Paprotny, Igor

doi:10.1116/1.4936384

Title: Novel chemoresistive CH₄ sensor with 10 ppm sensitivity based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes functionalized with SnO₂ nanocrystals

Journal Article · Mon Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4936384· OSTI ID:1532173

Humayun, Md Tanim ^[1]; Divan, Ralu ^[2]; Liu, Yuzi ^[2]; Gundel, Lara ^[3]; Solomon, Paul A. ^[4]; Paprotny, Igor ^[1]

Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Las Vegas, NV (United States)

Chemoresistive sensors based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) functionalized with SnO₂ nanocrystals (NCs) have great potential for detecting trace gases at low concentrations (single ppm levels) at room temperature, because the SnO₂ nanocrystals act as active sites for the chemisorption of gas molecules, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) act as an excellent current carrying platform, allowing the adsorption of gas on SnO₂ to modulate the resistance of the CNTs. However, uniform conjugation of SnO₂ NCs with MWCNTs is challenging. An effective atomic layer deposition based approach to functionalize the surface of MWCNTs with SnO₂NCs, resulting in a novel CH₄ sensor with 10 ppm sensitivity, is presented in this paper. Here, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were implemented to study the morphology, elemental composition, and the crystal quality of SnO₂ functionalized MWCNTs. High resolution TEM images showed that the crystal quality of the functionalizing SnO₂ NCs was of high quality with clear lattice fringes and the dimension almost three times smaller than shown thus far in literature. A lift-off based photolithography technique comprising bilayer photoresists was optimized to fabricate SnO₂ functionalized MWCNTs-based chemoresistor sensor, which at room temperature can reliably sense below 10ppm of CH₄ in air. Such low level gas sensitivity, with significant reversible relative resistance change, is believed to be the direct result of the successful functionalization of the MWCNT surface by SnO₂NCs.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1532173

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1421140

Journal Information:: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, Vol. 34, Issue 1; ISSN 0734-2101

Publisher:: American Vacuum Society / AIPCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 21 works

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