Pulse-Driven Micro Gas Sensor Fitted with Clustered Pd/SnO₂ Nanoparticles

Real-time monitoring of specific gas concentrations with a compact and portable gas sensing device is required to sense potential health risk and danger from toxic gases. For such purposes, we developed an ultrasmall gas sensor device, where a micro sensing film was deposited on a micro heater integrated with electrodes fabricated by the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The developed device was operated in a pulse-heating mode to significantly reduce the heater power consumption and make the device battery-driven and portable. Using clustered Pd/SnO₂ nanoparticles, we succeeded in introducing mesopores ranging from 10 to 30 nm in the micro gas sensing film (area: ø 150 μm) to detect large volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The micro sensor showed quick, stable, and high sensor responses to toluene at ppm (parts per million) concentrations at 300 °C even by operating the micro heater in a pulse-heating mode where switch-on and -off cycles were repeated at one-second intervals. The high performance of the micro sensor should result from the creation of efficient diffusion paths decorated with Pd sensitizers by using the clustered Pd/SnO₂ nanoparticles. Hence we demonstrate that our pulse-driven micro sensor using nanostructured oxide materials holds promise as a battery-operable, portable gas sensing device.