Metal oxide nanoscience and nanotechnology for chemical sensors

Elisabetta Comini , Camilla Baratto , Isabella Concina , Guido Faglia , Matteo F

alasconi , Matteo Ferroni ,
Vardan Galstyan, Emanuela Gobbi, Andrea Ponzoni, Alberto Vomiero, Dario Zappa,
Veronica Sberveglieri, Giorgio Sberveglieri*
SENSOR, University of Brescia and CNR-IDASC, via valotti 9, 25133 Brescia, Italy
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 23 August 2012
Received in revised form
29 September 2012
Accepted 4 October 2012
Available online 22 October 2012
Keywords:
Nanowire
Metal oxide
Chemical sensors
a b s t r a c t
This paper focuses on the capabilities and development prospects of nanostructur
ed metal oxides (MOX)
representing the most versatile and richest class of materials in terms of elect
ronic structure and
structural, chemical, and physical properties. MOX nano-materials with controlle
d composition, surface
terminations, and crystalline structures to be used as chemical sensors as a new
area in analytical chemistry
and instrument engineering are discussed. Their principles of operation, and bas
ic characteristics
are outlined and main applications of MOX sensor technology are presented.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Monitoring all aspects of the environment in real time has been
one of the key requirement of the last decades, and this in turn led to
a great effort in terms of research and funding for the development
of all kind of sensors. Chemical sensors are in the research focus
from several years due the increasing concerns for pollution and
its effects on health and safety.
Concerning metal oxides chemical sensors, it is well known from
six decades that their electrical conductivity varies with the surrounding
atmosphere. Several studies of the sensing properties of
semiconductor metal oxides in form of thin or thick films have been
reported in literature. The most studied material is by far SnO2, but
also other materials such as TiO2, WO3, ZnO and In2O3, have been
considered.
At SENSOR laboratory the studies on chemical sensors started
in 1988 with the development of thin films and then of a new
technique for the preparation of thin films with a highly porous
structure, then the focus was broadened to other oxides and to
catalysation and doping processes [1 5]. Since the reduction of
crystallite size produces a significant increase in sensor performance
[6] the research is focused on the fabrication of materials
with small crystallize size which jvjvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvmaintained their stabili
ty over
long term operation at high temperature.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sbervegl@tflab.ing.unibs.it (G. Sberveglieri).
Some of the preparation techniques employed for metal oxides
preparation require one or more thermal treatment [7 10], which
usually accomplish stoichiometry, stabilize crystalline phase, grain
size, porosity, interfaces, and defects. Thermal