Nitride and oxide semiconductor nanostructured hydrogen gas sensors

In this paper, we discuss the progress of nitride and oxide semiconductor nanostructures for hydrogen gas sensing. The use of catalyst metal coatings on GaN, InN and ZnO nanowires is found to greatly enhance the detection sensitivity. Pt- and Pd-coated GaN nanowires biased at small voltages show large changes in currents upon exposure to H2 gas at concentrations in the ppm range. Improvements in growth techniques for InN nanostructures have produced nanobelts and nanorods capable of hydrogen detection down to 20 ppm after catalyst coating. Functionalized ZnO nanorods were also investigated for hydrogen detection, but did not generate a relative response as high as that for the nitride-based sensors. All sensors tested exhibited no response at room temperature upon exposure to various other gases including O2, C2H5, N2O and CO2. The high surface-to-volume ratio of nanowires and the ability to use simple contact fabrication schemes make them attractive for hydrogen sensing applications.