Influence of Sensing Material Characteristics on Gas Sensor Properties

Abstract

There has been a constant development of semiconductor metal oxides that led to improvement in their sensing properties for gas detection. Semiconductor metal oxides are widely used in gas sensors due to their excellent sensing properties, abundance and ease of manufacturing. The best example of these sensing materials is TiO2 offering a wide bandgap and an unique set of functional properties, the most of which are electrical conductivity and high surface reactivity. There are two important material specific aspects that strongly affect the gas sensing properties and can be controlled by synthesis method: These are morphology/nano-structuring and dopants to vary crystallographic structure of metal oxide sensing material. Moreover, sensor designs such as these including p-n junctions, chemo- and memristor enhance sensor signal significantly. This plenary talk presents the recent advances in gas sensor material development and their influences on sensor's response and performances.