Enhanced catalytic activity of ultrathin CuO islands on SnO/sub 2/ films for fast response H/sub 2/S gas sensors

H/sub 2/S gas-sensing properties of a novel SnO/sub 2/-CuO structure consisting of ultrathin (/spl sim/10 nm) CuO dotted islands (600 /spl mu/m diameter) on 120-nm thick, sputtered SnO/sub 2/ film are compared with a pure SnO/sub 2/ and a SnO/sub 2/-CuO bilayer sensor. The SnO/sub 2/-CuO-dotted sensor exhibited a high sensitivity of 7.3/spl times/10/sup 3/ at a low operating temperature of 150/spl deg/C. A fast response time of 14 s for 20 ppm of H/sub 2/S gas and a recovery time of 118 s under flowing air have been measured. The electronic interaction due to modulation of the space charge regions between the distributed p-type CuO islands on the n-type SnO/sub 2/ thin-film surface and the presence of adsorbed oxygen on the SnO/sub 2/ support have been analyzed. Dissociated hydrogen available from the CuO-H/sub 2/S interaction spills over and its chemical interaction with the adsorbed oxygen on the SnO/sub 2/ surface is found to play a dominant role in the observed fast response characteristics.