Synthesis, characterization, and hydrogen gas sensing properties of AuNs-catalyzed ZnO sputtered thin films

Hydrogen present in concentration up to 4 vol.% forms an explosive mixture with air. Its propensity to escape in the event of leak, could lead to quick build-up and formation of an explosive mixture with air in confined spaces, such as an automobile. This necessitates its detection at very low concentration. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a well-known wide band gap (similar to 3.37 eV) semiconducting oxide that has been widely used for gas sensing applications. This work reports on the fabrication, characterization and gas sensing performance of nanogold decorated ZnO thin films made by DC reactive sputtering. The sensor films were fabricated by depositing a very thin layer of gold on the sputtered ZnO thin film. The as deposited Au@ZnO films were converted into highly crystalline ZnO film covered with gold nanostructures (AuNs@ZnO) by mild heat treatment. The structural and morphological as well as the compositional homogeneity of the as-deposited and heat-treated ZnO, Au@ZnO and AuNs@ZnO thin films were ascertained. The gas sensing behavior of the AuNs@ZnO thin films towards hydrogen as a function of temperature at different H-2 concentrations was investigated and compared with that of pure and heat-treated ZnO films. The effect of the presence of gold nanoparticles on imparting improvement (in terms of higher response signal, high reproducibility and complete reversibility) was established; the optimal operating temperature was about 400 degrees C. A plausible mechanism for the observed enhancement in the sensing behavior of AuNs@ZnO films towards H-2 is proposed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.