Sensitive detection of hydrocarbon gases using electrochemically Pd-modified ZnO chemiresistors

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Gennaro Cassano,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 82–90, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.9

• Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Laboratory Functional Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Applications - Brindisi Research Center, Brindisi, Italy CNR-IFN Bari, Bari, Italy 10.3762/bjnano.8.9 Abstract Pristine and electrochemically Pd-modified ZnO

• various HC gas concentrations in the range of 30–1000 ppm. The Pd-modified ZnO NRs showed a higher selectivity and sensitivity compared to pristine ZnO NRs. The mean sensitivity of Pd-modified ZnO NRs towards the analyzed HCs gases increased with the length of the hydrocarbon chain of the target gas

• molecule. Finally, the evaluation of the selectivity revealed that the presence or the absence of metal nanoparticles on ZnO NRs improves the selectivity in the detection of specific HCs gaseous molecules. Keywords: chemiresistive gas sensor; electrosynthesis; hydrocarbon gas sensor; Pd-modified ZnO; ZnO