Highly Sensitive Hydrogen Gas Sensors Based on Gold Nanoparticle Decorated Zinc Oxide Nanosheets

Highly sensitive gold nanoparticle decorated zinc oxide nanosheet gas sensors have been fabricated using simple and rapid chemical methods capable of producing a normalised current gain of 2.54 (at 10V) in dry air containing 2.5ppm of hydrogen gas at 200C and a current gain of 382.53 under 125ppm. Compared to undecorated sheet based sensors where a response of 1.24 was observed under 125ppm at 200C a massive relative increase in signal is observed. The zinc oxide nanosheets are produced via a previously reported simple microwave assisted hydrothermal growth method and gold nanoparticles with mean diameter of 5nm synthesized via a simple sodium borohydride reduction of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) followed by drop casting onto a pre-patterned aluminium oxide substrate.