Tin (IV) Sulfide chemoresistivity: A possible new gas sensing material

In the last years, the research in the gas sensor field had a significant upward thrust. Regarding the chemoresistive gas sensors, this has produced a remarkable study of metal oxides semiconductors which, however, have shown different limits. In particular their low selectivity and lack of stability take them to an unreliable responses over time. For this reason, in this work it was decided to study the chemoresistive behavior of a non metal oxide semiconductor as Tin (IV) Sulfide (SnS₂). SnS₂ nanoparticles was synthetized by precipitation reaction in aqueous solution. Then, structural chemical and morphological characterizations were carried out by means of X-Ray Diffraction and SEM techniques. Furthermore, the thermal stability of the powder was studied with thermogravimetric analysis. The sensitive films were obtained by preparing a screen-printing paste and then depositing it on alumina substrates by means of screen-printing technique. The sensing properties of the obtained devices were tested with several gases at different working temperatures. At the best working temperature, a high selectivity to ketones and aldehydes, with respect to different types of molecules, was observed.