Effect of annealing treatment on response characteristics of Pd-Ni alloy based hydrogen sensor

The response rate and anti-interference performance are crucial to the detect performance for Pd-based hydrogen sensors. In this study, a resistance- type palladium-nickel (Pd90Ni10) thin film hydrogen sensors were prepared by the ion beam sputtering method. Sensors with an optimized Pd90Ni10 thickness (90 nm) which showed the fastest response for hydrogen were selected to study the effect of annealing treatment to the response rate and anti-interference performance. Four groups of samples were annealed at 250°C, 300°C, 350°C, and 400°C in air atmosphere for 4 hours, respectively. The impact of annealing treatment on base resistance stability and hydrogen response characteristics were studied. SEM, EDS and XRD analysis were carried out to reveal the relationship between response characteristics and microstructures. Results show that annealing treatment was beneficial to the base resistance stability and response rate. Samples annealed at 350°C showed the best base resistance stability and response rate. Furthermore, the difference of response rate ∆ was improved for the annealing treatment, indicating the improvement of the hydrogen sensor regarding the anti-interference effect to other gases. Meanwhile, a new mechanism including mutli-factors of Pd-Ni alloy about the anti-interference of oxygen was proposed based on our study. Besides, the sensors with the optimized fabrication process were tested in mixed standard gas with various hydrogen concentrations. This work provides an outstanding guidance to fabricate of hydrogen sensors of high response rate and anti-interference performance.