Influence of Metal Catalyst on SnO2 Nanowires Growth and Gas Sensing Performance

Abstract

Abstract:In the present work SnO2 nanowires were synthetized by using vapour-liquid-solid technique (VLS) on alumina substrates, using different metal nanoparticles as catalyst for the growth. In particular, the effect of Au, Sn and Pd nanoparticles was exploited. The growth was performed simultaneously on all substrates, keeping the same conditions for the three different catalysts used. Nanowires were investigated by FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and XRD measurements, confirming the morphology and the crystalline structure of the material. Moreover, conductometric sensing devices were fabricated depositing electrodes on top of these materials, and chemical sensing performances were evaluated toward some typical air pollutants.

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“…Following this interesting work, many other works on the synthesis of SnO 2 nanowires using the same technique but optimizing the growth condition for different substrates and catalysts have been reported. ,,, Gold (Au) is another optimal catalyst for the synthesis of SnO 2 nanowires with a diameter of 100 nm to 1 μm . Interestingly, throughout the literature many different catalysts (Au, Pt, Ag, and Sn) ,, were used in order to obtain NW morphology for chemical/gas sensing, which also confirms that SnO 2 is one of the profoundly exploited materials.…”

“…83,86,93,94 Gold (Au) is another optimal catalyst for the synthesis of SnO 2 nanowires with a diameter of 100 nm to 1 μm. 93 Interestingly, throughout the literature many different catalysts (Au, Pt, Ag, and Sn) 86,94,95 were used in order to obtain NW morphology for chemical/gas sensing, which also confirms that SnO 2 is one of the profoundly exploited materials.…”

“…In both of the above-mentioned works, , Pt was used as a catalyst to grow SnO 2 nanowires. However, recently Zappa et al have grown SnO 2 nanowires using three different catalysts (Au, Pd, and Sn) with VLS that have been integrated into gas-sensing devices. Interestingly, at high temperatures, Pd-catalyzed SnO 2 nanowires exhibited better performance than did Au and Sn nanowires.…”

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“…On the other hand, Zappa et al studied the effect of Pd, Au and Sn catalysts on SnO 2 nanowires growth with VLS using different metals while keeping the growth temperature and the other experimental conditions constant. A surprising result was found: no morphology transition was observed and similar SnO 2 nanowires were produced with the use of all catalyst, which means that catalyst nature did not have a huge impact on supersaturation and crystallization of nanowires [ 17 ]. Unfortunately, most of these studies lack an investigation of the catalyst’s effect on the nanostructure’s functional performances.…”