Gas-sensitive properties of SnO₂-ZnO composite nanofilms enhanced by pt nanoparticles

Abstract The safety and stability of industrial production and daily life cannot be achieved without efficient real-time monitoring of hazardous gases and air pollutants. Existing ethanol gas detection sensors suffer from poor selectivity and integration difficulties, and these shortcomings seriously restrict their application in real-world scenarios and require urgent improvement. In this paper, tin dioxide (SnO 2 )-zinc oxide (ZnO) composite nanofilms were deposited on a P-Si substrate by RF magnetron sputtering method at a sputtering gas pressure of 7 Pa and loaded with platinum (Pt) nanoparticles as the sensitive materials for gas sensors. The experimental results showed that the loading of Pt nanoparticles improved the sensitivity of the SnO 2 -ZnO composite nanofilm, and the response value to ethanol gas was increased by 78.85% at a Pt sputtering time of 30 seconds as compared to that of the unloaded Pt nanoparticles, which can be attributed to the fact that Pt nanoparticles facilitated the response of the composite nanofilm to ethanol molecules.