1. Introduction
One of the pollutants of greatest concern is NO2 due to the unprecedented increase in quantity that has been experienced in recent decades. NO2 causes a variety of adverse effects (health and environment). In recent years, with the development of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology, there has been an emerging market demand for low-cost and miniaturized gas sensors to be incorporated into portable devices.
In this paper, a simple, economical, versatile and potentially scalable method is proposed to prepare low-cost sensors by a drop-casting technique using automated equipment. In addition, the substrates employed, low-cost substrates (FR-4) suitable for use in the field of gas sensors, will also contribute to the development of more economical and versatile sensors. We present two low-cost resistive sensors based on SnO2-NPs (pure and decorated with graphene) to detect pollutant gases at room temperature.
2. Materials and Methods
SnO2-NPs (<100 nm particle size) and graphene dispersion (1 mg/mL in DMF) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. The sensitive layers were obtained by drop-casting SnO2-NPs dispersions (2.5 mg/mL in water) on FR-4 substrates with interdigitated electrodes. The graphene-decorated samples were obtained by incorporating a certain amount of graphene dispersion (200 ppm %wt) into the SnO2 dispersions.
SEM/EDX analysis was used to investigate the surface morphology and the elemental composition of the sensors. The sensors were characterized using an automated gas line.
3. Discussion
The photoactivation with UV-LED of the sensitive films allows for the sensors to operate at room temperature. A comparative study of detection performance between the SnO2–NPs sensors and graphene-decorated SnO2-NPs sensors was carried out considering different concentrations of pollutant gases at room temperature. The influence of humidity on the response of the sensors was also studied. The detection mechanisms in both atmospheres are discussed.
Figure 1 illustrates the dynamic response at room temperature of the sensors tested under UV illumination. In general, all the sensors exhibited a high sensitivity and selectivity to NO
2, detecting concentrations as low as 50 ppb. The responses of the sensors in humid air (
Figure 2) were, in all the cases, better than those obtained in dry air. The graphene-decorated SnO
2 sensors present an improvement in the NO
2 response.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization and methodology, I.S. and J.P.S.; software, C.S.-V.; validation, I.S. and J.P.S.; formal analysis, I.S.; investigation, I.S.; resources, I.S.; data curation I.S.; writing—original draft preparation, I.S.; writing—review and editing, I.S. and J.P.S.; visualization, I.S. and J.P.S.; supervision, I.S. and J.P.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing is not applicable to this abstract.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for supporting their research under the NEOGAS project (PID2019-107697RB-C43).
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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