As highly sensitive H2S gas sensors, Au- and Ag-catalyzed SnO2 thin films with morphology-controlled nanostructures were fabricated by using e-beam evaporation in combination with the glancing angle deposition (GAD) technique. After annealing at 500 °C for 40 h, the sensors showed a polycrystalline phase with a porous, tilted columnar nanostructure. The gas sensitivities (S = Rgas/Rair) of Au and Ag-catalyzed SnO2 sensors fabricated by the GAD process were 0.009 and 0.015, respectively, under 5 ppm H2S at 300 °C, and the 90% response time was approximately 5 s. These sensors showed excellent sensitivities compared with the SnO2 thin film sensors that were deposited normally (glancing angle = 0°, S = 0.48).
Keywords: H2S sensor; SnO2 nanocolumn; glancing angle deposition; nanosensor.