Fast Responsive Gas Sensor of Vertically Aligned Fluorine-Doped Tin Oxide Nanorod Thin Film

We prepared fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) nanorod films and a conventional FTO thin film for the application of a semiconducting gas sensor by spray pyrolysis method. The lengths of FTO nanorods (FTON, 100 and 500 nm) were controlled by changing deposition times, and FTO thin film (FTOT) was also prepared as a reference. The gas sensitivity test shows FTON with long nanorods had higher sensitivity for both hydrogen and ethanol gases but slow response and recovery times, despite an advantage of the higher gas sensitivity. FTO nanorod film with short length about 100 nm showed relatively lower sensitivity, but fast gas response and recovery characteristics. The fast response and recovery for the analyte gases are attributed to the conductance of FTO nanorods, which is closely related to the diameter and length of nanorods. (C) 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics