H2S gas sensing, properties of CuO-functionalized WO3 nanowires

This paper compares the H2S gas sensing properties of CuO-functionalized WO3 nanowires with those of CuO-functionalized SnO2 nanorods to see the relative contributions of the nanowire material (WO3 or SnO2) and functionalization material (CuO) to H2S gas sensing properties. Multiple networked CuO-functionalized WO3 nanowire sensors showed electrical responses to H2S gas at 300 degrees C comparable to their CuO-functionalized SnO2 nanorod counterparts. The CuO-functionalized WO3 nanowires and CuO-functionalized SnO2 nanorods exhibited responses of similar to 673% and similar to 798%, respectively, to 100 ppm H2S at 300 degrees C. The ratio of the response of CuO-functionalized WO3 nanowires to H2S gas to that of pristine WO3 nanowires was 3.65, whereas the ratio of the response of CuO-functionalized SnO2 nanorods to H2S gas to that of pristine SnO2 nanorods was 3.84. Differences in sensing mechanism between CuO-functionalized WO3 nanowires and CuO-functionalized SnO2 nanorods are also discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2010-0020163)