Optimized hydrogen sensing properties of PLD-grown nanocomposite NiO:Au and NiO:Pd thin films at ppb-concentration levels

Summary form only given. Hydrogen finds increasing applications in industry and transportation as a clean fuel, therefore smart hydrogen sensors with high sensitivity are essential. We present results on the fabrication of p-type NiO:Au and NiO:Pd thin-film electrochemical sensors, which are able to detect hydrogen in air at ppb-level concentrations, operating at low temperatures. Even though in general p-type sensors have smaller response signals than n-type sensors, we achieve high performance with nanocomposite p-type NiO sensors. Therefore, we can take advantage of the excellent chemical stability [1] and ease of fabrication of NiO.