Hydrogen Sulfide Gas Sensing Capabilities of Solution Processed Vanadium Pentoxide Nanosheets

Vanadium Pentoxide (V ₂ O ₅ ) nanosheets, liquid exfoliated in ethanol, were used as sensing material for hydrogen sulfide (H ₂ S) detection. The material properties such as morphology, phase, chemical signature were characterized using Field Emission electron microscopy (FESEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman Spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). These nanosheets were further dropcasted on Ti/Pt interdigitated electrode (IDE) to fabricate a chemiresistive gas sensing device. The sensors show excellent response towards H2S gas at an operating temperature of 350 °C, when operated in 500 ppb-4 ppm range. The response in this range was found to be varying linearly from 1.5% (for 500 ppb) to 12.8% (for 4 ppm). Response time and recovery time of 71 seconds and 104 seconds for 1 ppm H2S was observed. The hysteresis error (%) of the device was found to be ±4.21% which suggests it to be a good sensing material for H ₂ S detection. The device was also tested on other parameters like repeatability, stability and reproducibility and it performs well in these tests indicating exfoliated V ₂ O ₅ nanosheet as a potential sensing material for chemiresistive devices for H ₂ S detection.