Highly selective detection of sulfur hexafluoride decomposition components H₂S and SOF₂ employing sensors based on tin oxide modified reduced graphene oxide

In this paper, a high-performance sensor based on tin oxide modified reduced graphene oxide (SnO₂-rGO) has been prepared via a one-step hydrothermal process for the detection of sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) decomposition components H₂S and SOF₂. The morphology and nanostructure of the product were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (RS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The gas sensing properties of SnO₂-rGO nanocomposite were investigated by exposing to various target gases. The experimental results revealed that SnO₂-rGO sensor exhibited better responses (34.31% and −3.13%) than those (5.97% and −1.45%) of pristine rGO sensor at the optimal temperature of 125 °C in the presentence 100 ppm H₂S and 10 ppm SOF₂, respectively. Meanwhile, SnO₂-rGO sensor emerged as one of the promising candidate materials to select these two gases by yielding opposite response to H₂S and SOF₂. In addition, uniformity, repeatability, long-term stability of SnO₂-rGO sensors were investigated to demonstrate the practicability, and the possible mechanism of SnO₂-rGO nanocomposite for sensing H₂S and SOF₂ was discussed.