Investigating of transition state on the Pd–Au decorated ZnO nanoparticle layers for gas sensor application

In this work, the mechanism of the transition state of electron transfer reaction on the surface of the ZnO nanoparticles-based gas sensor has been investigated. The deposited ZnO nanoparticles thick films on glass slides had been synthesized by the current heating method and modified its surface by coating novel metals of gold and palladium with a sputtering technique with different sputtering times of 45–180 s. Field emission electron microscopy (FE-SEM), x-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used for the characterization of ZnO nanoparticle thick films. After that, the reflectance spectra of films were investigated using Near-IR spectroscopy in the range of 900–2500 nm to study the surface absorption efficiency. The decrease in reflectance spectra was observed for conditions over 90 s of sputtering time. The particle size distribution and zeta potential of ZnO nanoparticles were analyzed using the dynamic light scattering technique for the calculation of particle size and the electrical charge potential. The results showed that the size particle distribution ranged from 155 to 245 nm and the more extensive range of 360–1100 nm. The optimized zeta potential of −14.44 mV was exhibited at the sputtering time of 45 s. Finally, the gas sensing mechanism in terms of surface charge density was proposed and used to explain the sensitivity enhancement of both resistive and capacitive gas sensors.