Development of a Ferrite Film Based Solid State Sensor System for Ultra Low Concentration Hydrogen Sulfide Gas Detection

• Published in: IEEE sensors journal 2022-05, Vol.22 (9), p.8402-8409
• Main Authors: Jha, Ravindra Kumar, Nanda, Aman, Sai, Ranajit, Kishore, Kaushal, Yadav, Anshul, Kahmei, R. D. Ralandinliu, Bhat, Navakanta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: auto-balancing interface circuit; Chemiresistive sensor; Circuits; Density functional theory; dual differential subtractor; ferrite; Ferrite films; Gas sensors; Hydrogen sulfide; hydrogen sulfide gas; Ions; Iron; Metals; microwave synthesis; Operating temperature; Sensors; Temperature measurement; Zinc; Zinc ferrites
• ISSN: 1530-437X; 1558-1748
• DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2022.3149980

We report on a selective hydrogen sulfide gas sensor based on zinc ferrite film which is obtained by a microwave-assisted solvothermal deposition route. The response of the chemiresistive device is found to be in the range of 1872% - 90% for 5.6 ppm - 0.3 ppm of H 2 S gas at an operating temperature of 250°C. The density functional theory studies suggest physisorption of the H 2 S molecules at the partially-inverted ZnFe 2 O 4 surface as the reason behind the fast rise (of the order of ~40 sec) and fall time (of the order of ~70 sec) with complete recovery of the device. Finally, a dual-differential subtractor based auto-balancing interface circuit is proposed to drive this sensor which is advantageous in terms of accuracy and particularly suitable for a device such as ours, which has a wide dynamic range.