D.Tz. Dimitrov¹, I.A. Pronin², N.D. Yakushova², I.E. Kononova^3,4, P.V. Kononov⁴, A.Ts. Georgieva⁵, I.A. Averin², V.A. Moshnikov^3,4
1Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sofia, 1, J. Bourchier Blvd., Sofia 1164, Bulgaria
²Penza State University, ul. Krasnaya 40, Penza, 440026 Russia
³St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University LETI, ul. Proffesora Popova 5, St. Petersburg, 197376 Russia
⁴St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, ul. Politechnicheskaya 29, St. Petersburg, 195251 Russia
⁵University of Florida, 32611-6135, Gainesville, United States

Abstract. Here we investigated in details the morphological, thermo-electrical and oxygen sensing properties of ceramic junctions composed of overlapping of two plane-parallel ceramic electrodes: one of them consisted of pure yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), the other one is composed of YSZ embedded with 2.5, 4.5 and 6.5 mol% platinum nanoparticles. The bottom electrode is either of pure YSZ or YSZ+Pt composition, with the top electrode being of the opposite material. The size distributions of YSZ grains into the Pt embedded upper layers for different single YSZ/(YSZ+Pt) junction structures and for pure YSZ layer of single (YSZ+Pt)/YSZ junction structure with Pt concentration of 6.5 mol% are investigated. Based on the YSZ particles size distribution, the electrical and oxygen sensing properties of different junctions are explained. Proposed here is a model of the effect of platinum nanoparticles on the junction's performance. For more detailed characterization of sensor's performance the correlation analysis between surface fractal dimension of the upper layers and the response to oxygen is performed. The ability of output multiplication is investigated by constructing novel multi-junctions structure, composed of three layers of YSZ, containing Pt nanoparticles, overlapped with three layers of pure YSZ.

Full-text: PDF