Structural, morphological and ethanol sensing properties of Ru:Sr-SnO^sub 2^ nano-composite

A facile synthesis approach for developing Ruthenium (Ru) loaded Strontium (Sr) doped tin oxide (SnO2) semiconductor sensors via co-precipitation route is reported. By keeping 4 mol% Sr doping in SnO2 the loading of Ru was varied from 2-8 wt%. The structural, morphological, compositional and optical properties of the as-prepared nano-composites were investigated using various characterization techniques. XRD studies confirm tetragonal rutile structure of SnO2, without presence of any peak corresponding with RuO2 or SrO. The FE-SEM studies depicted individual nanoparticles with porous morphology of composite with grain size of 8-12 nm. The EDAX results confirmed elemental composition of respective synthetic reagents used. TEM and BET surface area analyses showed reduction in the particle size and increase in surface area and porosity on loading the appropriate amount of Ru. Gas sensing properties of as-prepared material showed improvement on loading of Ru with the best performance for sample with 6 wt% Ru. The obtained results are discussed with the context of Ru loading in Sr-SnO2 metal oxide.