Ga(2)O(3)(Sn) Oxides for High-Temperature Gas Sensors

Gallium(III) oxide is a promising functional wide-gap semiconductor for high temperature gas sensors of the resistive type. Doping of Ga(2)O(3) with tin improves material conductivity and leads to the complicated influence on phase content, microstructure, adsorption sites, donor centers and, as a result, gas sensor properties. In this work, Ga(2)O(3) and Ga(2)O(3)(Sn) samples with tin content of 0–13 at.% prepared by aqueous co-precipitation method were investigated by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption isotherms, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and probe molecule techniques. The introduction of tin leads to a decrease in the average crystallite size, increase in the temperature of β-Ga(2)O(3) formation. The sensor responses of all Ga(2)O(3)(Sn) samples to CO and NH(3) have non-monotonous character depending on Sn content due to the following factors: the formation of donor centers and the change of free electron concentration, increase in reactive chemisorbed oxygen ions concentration, formation of metastable Ga(2)O(3) phases and segregation of SnO(2) on the surface of Ga(2)O(3)(Sn) grains.