Mixed oxide Pt/(Ti-W-O)/SiC based MROSiC device for hydrocarbon gas sensing

A highly sensitive gas sensor employing mixed oxide (Ti-W-O) has been developed for the detection of hydrocarbons. The sensing performance of the Pt/(Ti-W-O)/SiC based Metal Reactive Oxide Silicon Carbide (MROSiC) devices has been investigated as a function of temperature and different concentration of propene in synthetic air. When operated at 420 degrees C, a 2.52V shift was observed when 1% propene was introduced into an ambient containing synthetic air. The changes in the barrier height of the device were 65.5meV, approximately two times larger for the same hydrogen concentration. Material characterization of the mixed oxide was performed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). We have found that the mixed oxide (Ti-W-O) showed higher catalytic activity when compared to the single compound of TiO(2) and WO(3), thus increasing the rate of dehydrogenation of the hydrocarbon.