Enhancing response characteristics of palladium-doped vanadium pentoxide on a porous silicon substrate as gas sensor synthesized by pulsed laser deposition

A gas sensor utilizing V 2 O 5 /Pd thin films has been successfully created by pulse laser deposition on porous silicon substrate, demonstrating rapid response times and superior sensitivity for detecting gases at low temperatures. The investigation of sensor response, selectivity, and stability demonstrates the impressive sensing capabilities of the thin films. Vanadium pentoxide films doped with palladium (V 2 O 5 /Pd) are fabricated through pulsed laser deposition technique, with varying laser pulse energy (600, 800, and 1000) mJ/pulse, for the purpose of sensing applications related to Hydrogen Sulfide (H 2 S) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ). The ablation procedure entails the utilization of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser that operates at a specific wavelength of 1064 nm. The laser system exhibits pulse duration of 10 ns and a repetition rate of 1 Hz when operating on a porous silicon n-type Si (111) substrate. The X-ray diffraction, UV–Vis Spectroscopy, Raman scattering, Photoluminescence spectroscopy, and field emission-scanning electron microscopy techniques were employed to investigate the crystal structure, optical structure, and morphological properties of the V 2 O 5 /Pd NPs. As the energy of the pulse laser grows, the presence of well-defined peaks in the V 2 O 5 /Pd thin film indicates an enhancement in its crystalline structure. The size of the surface grains exhibit an augmentation, accompanied by an increase in the energy gap, leading to an elevated level of homogeneity. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of Pd on the development kinetics of vanadium pentoxide nanoparticles. The findings of this investigation demonstrated that the addition of Pd resulted in several notable effects, including improved sensitivity, reduced operational temperature requirements, and the capacity to maintain high sensitivity levels even at room temperature.