Synthesis and Formaldehyde Sensing Properties of Pd-Doped SnO2 Nanoparticles

The formaldehyde gas sensing characteristics of Pd-doped SnO2 nanoparticles prepared by a surfactant-assisted method were investigated in this paper. The phases of the resulting materials and the morphologies of Pd-doped SnO2 nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron micrographs (TEM). The indirect-heating sensors were fabricated using Pd-doped SnO2 nanoparticles as sensitive materials and the gas-sensing characteristics to formaldehyde gas were investigated. The results show that the sensitive material has a high gas sensitivity 80 and a quick response time 60 s to 100 ppm formaldehyde gas, making them to be promising candidates for practical detectors to formaldehyde gas. The sensitive mechanism of sensor was also analyzed and discussed.