Catalytic Micro Gas Sensor with Excellent Homogeneous Temperature Distribution and Low Power Consumption for Long-Term Stable Operation

This paper presents a long-term stable thermoelectric micro gas sensor with ligand linked Pt nanoparticles as catalyst. The sensor design gives an excellent homogeneous temperature distribution over the catalytic layer, an important factor for long-term stability. The sensor consumes very low power, 18 mW at 100 °C heater temperature. Another thermoresistive sensor is also fabricated with same material for comparative analysis. The thermoelectric sensor gives better temperature homogeneity and consumes 23% less power than thermoresistive sensor for same average temperature on the membrane. The sensor shows linear characteristics with temperature change and has significantly high Seebeck coefficient of 6.5 mV/K. The output of the sensor remains completely constant under 15,000 ppm continuous H2 gas flow for 24 h. No degradation of sensor signal for 24 h indicates no deactivation of catalytic layer over the time. The sensor is tested with 3 different amount of catalyst at 2 different operating temperatures under 6000 ppm and 15,000 ppm continuous H2 gas flow for 4 h. Sensor output is completely stable for 3 different amount of catalyst.