Selectivity and stability of a tin dioxide sensor for methane

Abstract The selectivity and long-term stability of a screen-printed tin dioxide sensor for methane are discussed in this paper. A dependence of the sensitivity to ethanol on the thickness of the sensor is highlighted and can be exploited to improve the sensor's selectivity. A further enhancement of the selectivity can be brought about by the use of specially devised screen-printed filters. The long-term behaviour of the sensor is found to improve as the annealing temperature is raised in the range 750–950 °C. Based on the literature, a tentative explanation of the experimental findings is given.