Hydrogen gas sensors having high sensitivity achieved by control of chemical states of adsorbed oxygen species

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24241025
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Environmental technology/Environmental materials
• Research Institution: Kochi University of Technology
• Principal Investigator: YAMAMOTO Tetsuya 高知工科大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 教授 (30320120)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SONG Huaping 高知工科大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 助教 (00611831) ; MAKINO Hisao 高知工科大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 准教授 (40302210) ; KISHIMOTO Seiichi 高知工業高等専門学校, その他部局等, その他 (90177816) ; NOMOTO Junichi 高知工科大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 助教 (30711288)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KOBAYASHI Keisuke 高知工科大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 客員教授 (50372149)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: グリーンケミストリ / 水素センサー / 半導体センサー / 酸化物半導体 / 酸化亜鉛 / 導電性薄膜

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we achieved hydrogen gas sensors based on oxide semiconductors which operate at a temperature of 170 ℃; their performance is a response time within almost 1 s with current changes of 0.1 mA. 50-nm-thick conductive ZnO polycrystalline films were used as gas sensing materials. With regard to the operating temperatures, significant reduction in temperature is realized when compared with the prior technologies (the typical temperature is 300 ℃). The value of the response time is found to be very short, compared to that of conventional semiconductor-based sensors, typically 20 s.Note that the feature of the hydrogen gas sensors that have been achieved in this study is applicable to both DC source and AC source (patents application already).

Free Research Field

固体物理学、半導体物理学