Low-Temperature Growth of SnO2 Nanorod Arrays and Tunable n-p-n Sensing Response of a ZnO/SnO2 Heterojunction for Exclusive Hydrogen Sensors

Uniform SnO2 nanorod arrays have been deposited at low temperature by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). ZnO surface modification is used to improve the selectivity of the SnO2 nanorod sensor to H-2 gas. The ZnO-modified SnO2 nanorod sensor shows a normal n-type response to 100 ppm CO, NH3, and CH4 reducing gas whereas it exhibits concentration-dependent n-p-n transitions for its sensing response to H-2 gas. This abnormal sensing behavior can be explained by the formation of n-ZnO/p-Zn-O-Sn/n-SnO2 heterojunction structures. The gas sensors can be used in highly selective H-2 sensing and this study also opens up a general approach for tailoring the selectivity of gas sensors by surface modification.