Growth of ordered anodic SnO₂ nanochannel layers and their use for H₂ gas sensing

In the current work, we present a new self-organizing anodization approach of metallic Sn layers to obtain vertically aligned tin oxide nanochannel structures. For this, we use a sulphide-containing electrolyte and a set of optimized anodizing parameters. The resulting high aspect ratio nanochannel morphologies can be converted into crystalline SnO₂ by high temperature annealing and show highly promising H₂ sensing properties. We show that these anodic layers can operate at relatively low temperatures (∼80 °C), detecting concentrations as low as 9 ppm, and with extremely fast response and recovery times. This excellent gas-sensing performance is ascribed to the advanced structure, characterized by a crack-free, straight and top-open nanochannel geometry.