Ultrasensitive methyl salicylate gas sensing determined by Pd-doped SnO2

Efficient chemical warfare agents (CWAs) detection is required to protect people from the CWAs in war and terrorism. In this work, a Pd-doped SnO₂ nanoparticles-based gas sensor was developed to detect a nerve agent simulant named methyl salicylate. The sensing measurements of methyl salicylate under different Pd doping amounts found that the 0.5 at.% Pd-doped SnO₂ exhibited a significant improvement in the detection of methyl salicylate at the ppb (1 ppb = 10⁻⁹) level, and the response value to 160 ppb methyl salicylate is 0.72 at 250 °C. Compared with the pure SnO₂, the response value is increased by 4.5 times, which could be attributed to the influence of the noble metal Pd on the oxygen state and its catalytic effect. In addition, the 0.5 at.% Pd-doped SnO₂ sensor still has an obvious response to 16 ppb methyl salicylate with a response value of 0.13, indicating the lower detection limit of the sensor.