Enhancement of gas response of annealed ZnO film for hydrogen gas detection

Abstract

  The mechanism of hydrogen (H2) gas sensor in the range of 50-200 ppm of RF-sputtered annealed zinc oxide (ZnO) and without annealing was studied. The X-ray Diffraction( XRD) results showed that the Zn metal was completely converted to ZnO with a polycrystalline structure. The I–V characteristics of the device (PT/ZnO/Pt) measured at room temperature before and after annealing at 450 oC for4h, from which a linear relationship has been observed. The sensors had a maximum response to H2 at 350 oC for annealing ZnO and showed stable behavior for detecting H2 gases in the range of 50 to 200 ppm. The annealed film exhibited higher response than the film without annealing.. The sensing mechanism was modeled according to the oxygen–vacancy model.