Gas sensing properties of SnO2 nanoparticles mixed with gold nanoparticles

SnO₂ nanoparticles mixed with different amounts of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were synthesized and their CO sensing properties were investigated. The sol–gel method was employed to prepare the initial solution. SEM, TEM, XRD, DLS and spectrophotometry were used to characterize the nanoparticles. The pure sensors showed a response of about 4 to 12.8 for (20–80)×10^?6 CO at operating temperature of 340 °C. The response and recovery time at 50×10^?6 Co is about 10 and 14 s, respectively. The amount of GNPs optimized was used to create high performance GNP-SnO₂ sensors (m(Au)/m(Sn)=3.7663×10^?4) and optimal operating temperature was about 260 °C and the response at concentrations of (20–80)×10^?6 was 8.3 to 29.5, respectively.