Synthesis of Mesoporous Tin Oxide and Its Application as a Gas Sensor

In this study, mesoporous tin oxide was synthesized by sol-gel method using C16TMABr surfactant as a template in a basic condition. The optimum conditions for the synthesis of mesoporous SnO2 were investigated and the obtained samples were characterized by XRD, nitrogen adsorption and TEM analysis. A mesoporous and nanostructured SnO2 gas sensor with Au electrode and Pt heater has been fabricated on alumina substrate as one unit via a screen printing process. Sensing abilities of fabricated sensors were examined for CO and CH4 gases, respectively, at 350 ℃ in the concentration range of 1∼10,000 ppm. Influence of loading amount of palladium impregnated on SnO2 was also tested in detection of those gases. High sensitivity to detecting gases and the fast response speed with stability were obtained with the mesoporous tin oxide sensor as compared to a non-porous one under the same detection conditions.