Nanoporous TiO2 thin film based conductometric H2 sensor

Nanoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2) based conductometric sensors have been fabricated and their sensitivity to hydrogen (H2) gas has been investigated. A filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) system was used to deposit ultra-smooth Ti thin films on a transducer having patterned inter-digital gold electrodes (IDTs). Nanoporous TiO2 films were obtained by anodization of the titanium (Ti) thin films using a neutral 0.5% (wt) NH4F in ethylene glycol solution at 5 V for 1 h. After anodization, the films were annealed at 600°C for 8 h to convert the remaining Ti into TiO2. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed that the average diameters of the nanopores are in the range of 20 to 25 nm. The sensor was exposed to different concentrations of H2 in synthetic air at operating temperatures between 100°C and 300°C. The sensor responded with a highest sensitivity of 1.24 to 1% of H2 gas at 225°C.