A hall effect hydrogen-selective gas sensor based on SnO2 nanowires operating at low temperature

In the present work, Hall Effect gas sensors based on SnO2 nanowires for Hydrogen detection have been investigated. The SnO2 nanowires were synthesized on stainless steel mesh in a horizontal electrical furnace, and XRD, SEM, FESEM, XPS were employed to analyze the crystallographic structure, the morphology, and the SnO2 nanowires electron binding energy of SnO2 nanowires. The results indicate that the SnO2 nanowires synthesized at 950 °C are single crystals with rutile structure, 30 nm in diameter with hundreds of microns in length and composed of only Sn and O. The Hall Effect gas sensor fabricated from SnO2 nanowires showed the peak response of 7.81 towards 1000 ppm H2 under the optimal operating temperature of 125 °C and reversible response to H2 at different operating temperatures and H2 concentrations. In addition, the plausible response mechanism of the Hall Effect gas sensor based on SnO2 was discussed. The results demonstrate that the Hall Effect gas sensor based on SnO2 nanowires is very promising for the fabrication of cost effective and high-performance gas sensors.