The type and severity of faults occurring in gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) can be assessed by detecting SF6 decomposed gases, which is significant for fault diagnosis and online condition monitoring of GIS. Characteristic decomposition components of SF6 under partial discharge or overheating faults and first-principle density functional theory calculations are adopted to analyze the adsorption of SO2, SOF2, and SO2F2 on Pt-modified anatase (1 0 1) surface and to examine further the sensing mechanism of Pt-modified anatase-based gas sensor used to detect SO2, SOF2, and SO2F2. Results show that SO2F2 molecule more easily decomposes upon adsorption on the active Pt nanoparticle than SOF2 molecule. Meanwhile, SO2 molecule does not decompose. This finding explains the phenomenon in the sensing experiment of Pt-modified TiO2 nanotube array gas sensor, wherein the response of SO2F2 is higher than that of SOF2 at the optimal temperature of the sensor. Moreover, the responses of SO2F2 and SOF2 significantly change at the optimal temperature, whereas the response of SO2 is nearly unchanged. C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.