Platinum Based Nanoparticles Produced by a Pulsed Spark Discharge as a Promising Material for Gas Sensors

• Main Authors: Ivan A. Volkov, Nikolay P. Simonenko, Alexey A. Efimov, Tatiana L. Simonenko, Ivan S. Vlasov, Vladislav I. Borisov, Pavel V. Arsenov, Yuri Yu. Lebedinskii, Andrey M. Markeev, Anna A. Lizunova, Artem S. Mokrushin, Elizaveta P. Simonenko, Vadim A. Buslov, Andrey E. Varfolomeev, Zhifu Liu, Alexey A. Vasiliev, Victor V. Ivanov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: spark ablation technology; platinum-based functional ink; aerosol jet printing; printed gas sensors
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/2/526

We have applied spark ablation technology for producing nanoparticles from platinum ingots (purity of 99.97 wt. %) as a feed material by using air as a carrier gas. A maximum production rate of about 400 mg/h was achieved with an energy per pulse of 0.5 J and a pulse repetition rate of 250 Hz. The synthesized nanomaterial, composed of an amorphous platinum oxide PtO (83 wt. %) and a crystalline metallic platinum (17 wt. %), was used for formulating functional colloidal ink. Annealing of the deposited ink at 750 °C resulted in the formation of a polycrystalline material comprising 99.7 wt. % of platinum. To demonstrate the possibility of application of the formulated ink in printed electronics, we have patterned conductive lines and microheaters on alumina substrates and 20 μm thick low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) membranes with the use of aerosol jet printing technology. The power consumption of microheaters fabricated on LTCC membranes was found to be about 140 mW at a temperature of the hot part of 500 °C, thus allowing one to consider these structures as promising micro-hotplates for metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors. The catalytic activity of the synthesized nanoparticles was demonstrated by measuring the resistance transients of the non-sintered microheaters upon exposure to 2500 ppm of hydrogen.