The effect of Pt and Pd decoration on SnO2 slant nanorods fabricated using DC magnetron sputtering with OAD technique for CO gas sensing applications

Abstract

This research investigates the effect of Pt and Pd decoration on the structure of SnO2 slant nanorods (SNRs) films produced using DC magnetron sputtering with Oblique Angle Deposition (OAD), as well as their impact on the films’ physical properties and gas sensing applications. Pt and Pd were deposited onto the SnO2 SNRs for the same duration of 20 s each. Following deposition, all the films were heat treated temperature at 400℃ for 2 h. The characterization of both as-deposited and annealed films involved analyzing the physical morphology using FE-SEM and the crystal structure using GI-XRD. It was observed that the structure of the SnO2 SNRs showed no significant differences before and after decoration. XRD analysis identified the crystalline structure of SnO2 at the (110), (101), and (211) planes. After decoration, additional peaks corresponding to Pt at (111) and (200) and Pd at (111) were detected. Additionally, TEM mapping revealed that most of the deposited particles were largely concentrated on the top surface of the nanorods. Finally, testing for CO gas sensing performance revealed that the SnO2 SNRs decorated with Pt demonstrated the highest sensitivity, detecting CO gas at concentrations as low as 50 ppm. Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/