New Comparative Study of High-Sensitivity H2Gas Sensors at Room Temperature Based on ZnO NWs Grown on Si and PS/Si Substrates without Catalyst by Wet Thermal Evaporation Method

Abstract

Abstract A novel approach for growing high-quality ZnOnano-structures with no catalyst using an inexpensive technique that is called wet thermal evaporation has been investigated for gas sensor applications. For a novel comparative investigation of H2 gas sensors, large regions regarding the well-aligned coral reef-like ZnOnano-structures on the porous Si (PS) and flower-like nano-rods on Silicon were successfully utilized. In the presented study, a Pd/ZnO/Pd metal-semiconductor-metal was efficiently created for H2 gas sensor device employing high-quality ZnOnano-structures that are grown on a variety of the substrates. At room temperature, the sensitivity related to ZnO/PS and ZnO/Si is evaluated at various flow rate values (25sccm, 50sccm, 100sccm, and 150sccm) of 2% H2 gas. The I-V characteristics revealed that ZnO/Si has a larger hydrogen gas barrier height than ZnO/PS. At room temperature, the ZnO/Si sensitivity was about 105% and 190% for ZnO/PS at 150sccm flow rate. The sensors’ sensitivity and optimum operating temperature for ZnO/PS at 150sccm of H2 gas are 350% (at 100 Celsius), which is higher compared to double the maximal sensitivity with regard to ZnO/Si device at a temperature of 150 Celsius. This research concluded that because ZnO/PS has a large specific area, it has a greater possibility of reacting with gases and increasing sensitivity at the temperature of theroom.