Sol–gel derived mesoporous Pt and Cr-doped WO3 thin films: the role played by mesoporosity and metal doping in enhancing the gas sensing properties

Mesoporous Cr or Pt-doped WO3 thin films to be employed as ammonia gas sensors were prepared by a fast one-step sol–gel procedure, based on the use of triblock copolymer as templating agent. The obtained films were constituted by aggregates of interconnected WO3 nanocrystals (20–50 nm) separated by mesopores with dimensions ranging between 2 and 15 nm. The doping metals, Pt and Cr, resulted differently hosted in the WO3 mesoporous matrix. Chromium is homogeneously dispersed in the oxide matrix, mainly as Cr(III) and Cr(V) centers, as revealed by EPR spectroscopy; instead platinum segregated as Pt (0) nanoparticles (4 nm) mainly included inside the WO3 nanocrystals. The semiconductor layers containing Pt nanoclusters revealed, upon exposure to NH3, remarkable electrical responses, much higher than Cr-doped and undoped layers, particularly at low ammonia concentration (6.2 ppm). This behavior was attributed to the presence of Pt nanoparticles segregated inside the semiconductor matrix, which act as catalysts of the N–H bond cleavage, decreasing the activation barrier in the ammonia dissociation. The role of the mesoporous structure in influencing the chemisorption and the gas diffusion in the WO3 matrix appeared less decisive than the electronic differences between the two examined doping metals. The overall results suggest that a careful combination between mesoporous architecture and metal doping can really promote the electrical response of WO3 toward ammonia.