• Ceramist
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.96-106
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• 2019

Semiconducting carbon-based nanomaterials including single-walled carbon nanotubes(SWCNTs), multi-walled CNT(MWCNTs), graphene(GR), graphene oxide(GO), and reduced graphene oxide(RGO), are very promising sensing materials due to their large surface area, high conductivity, and ability to operate at room temperature. Despite of these advantages, the semiconducting carbon-based nanomaterials intrinsically possess crucial disadvantages compared with semiconducting metal oxide nanomaterials, such as relatively low gas response, irreversible recovery, and poor selectivity. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a variety of strategies to overcome these disadvantages and investigate principle parameters to improve gas sensing performances.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.741-750
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• 2016

Nanofibers(NFs), because of their high surface area and nanosized grains, have appropriate morphologies for use in chemiresistive-type sensors for gas detection applications. In this study, a highly sensitive and selective CO gas sensing material based on Au-decorated $SnO_2$ NFs was fabricated by electrospinning. $SnO_2$ NFs were synthesized by electrospinning and subsequently decorated with various amounts of Au nanoparticles(NPs) by sputtering; this was followed by thermal annealing. Different characterizations showed the successful formation of Au-decorated $SnO_2$ NFs. Gas sensing tests were performed on the fabricated sensors, which showed bell-shaped sensing behavior with respect to the amount of Au decoration. The best CO sensing performance, with a response of ~20 for 10 ppm CO, was obtained at an optimized amount of Au (2.6 at.%). The interplay between Au and $SnO_2$ in terms of the electronic and chemical sensitization by Au NPs is responsible for the great improvement in the CO sensing capability of pure $SnO_2$ NFs, suggesting that Au-decorated $SnO_2$ NFs can be a promising material for fabricating highly sensitive and selective chemiresistive-type CO gas sensors.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2006

The micro-gas sensor based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was fabricated and its gas sensing characteristics on nitrogen dioxide ($NO_{2}$) have been investigated. The sensor consists of a heater, an insulating layer, a pair of contact electrodes, and CNT-sensing film on a micromachined diaphragm. The heater plays a role in the temperature change to modify sensor operation. Gas sensor responses of CNT-film to $NO_{2}$ at room temperature are reported. The sensor exhibits a reversible response with a time constant of a few minutes at thermal treatment temperature of $130^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.607-612
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• 2009

We investigated the effects of Co doping on the NO gas sensing characteristics of ZnO-carbon nanotube (ZnO-CNT) layered composites fabricated by coaxial coating of single-walled CNTs with ZnO using pulsed laser deposition. Structural examinations clearly confirmed a distinct nanostructure of the CNTs coated with ZnO nanoparticles of an average diameter as small as 10 nm and showed little influence of doping 1 at.% Co into ZnO on the morphology of the ZnO-CNT composites. It was found from the gas sensing measurements that 1 at.% Co doping into ZnO gave rise to a significant improvement in the response of the ZnO-CNT composite sensor to NO gas exposure. In particular, the Co-doped ZnO-CNT composite sensor shows a highly sensitive and fast response to NO gas at relatively low temperatures and even at low NO concentrations. The observed significant improvement of the NO gas sensing properties is attributed to an increase in the specific surface area and the role as a catalyst of the doped Co elements. These results suggest that Co-doped ZnOCNT composites are suitable for use as practical high-performance NO gas sensors.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.205-214
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• 1989

The sensing of odour compounds in gas phase is an attractive target in recent sensor technology. Based on the finding that a plant leaf can respond to various gas molecules by changing its potential, biosensing system using a plant leaf has been investigated for the detection of odour compounds. A leaf of some plant species responded to odour compounds directly by changing its potential $5{\sim}10\;mV$. That the leaf was actually sensing an odour was much more remarkably detected from the difference between the response profile to pure $CO_2$ gas and that to $CO_2$ gas containing odour compounds. Then the quantitative study (ppb level) is now being performed on the response of a tobacco leaf to benzyl acetate; a component of jasminelike odours. The concept of biosensing and its significance are also described from the viewpoint of sensor technology.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.296-300
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• 2017

NiO nanofibers with Au nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel and electrospinning techniques, in which the reduction process by ultraviolet exposure is included for the growth of Au nanoparticles in the electrospinning solution. FE-SEM(Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy), TEM(Transmission Electron Microscopy) revealed that the synthesized nanofibers had the diameter of approximately 200 nm. X-ray diffraction showed the successful formation of Au-decorated NiO nanofibers. Gas sensing tests of Au-decorated NiO nanofibers were performed using reducing gases of CO, and $C_6H_6$, $C_7H_8$, $C_2H_5OH$. Compared to as-synthesized NiO nanofibers, the response of Au-loaded NiO nanofibers to CO gas was found to be about 3.4 times increased. On the other hand, the response increases were only 1.1-1.3 times for $C_6H_6$, $C_7H_8$, and $C_2H_5OH$.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.713-718
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• 2012

Sensor nodes in ubiquitous sensor networks require autonomous replacement of deteriorated gas sensors with reserved sensors, which has led us to develop an encapsulation technique to avoid poisoning the reserved sensors and an autonomous activation technique to replace a deteriorated sensor with a reserved sensor. Encapsulations of $In_2O_3$ nanoparticles with poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVOH) or polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) as gas barrier layers are reported. The EVOH or PVDF films are used for an encapsulation of $In_2O_3$ as a sensing material and are effective in blocking $In_2O_3$ from contacting formaldehyde (HCHO) gas. The activation process of $In_2O_3$ by removing the EVOH through heating is effective. However, the thermal decomposition of the PVDF affects the property of the $In_2O_3$ in terms of the gas reactivity. The response of the sensor to HCHO gas after removing the EVOH is 26%, which is not significantly different with the response of 28% in a reference sample that was not treated at all. We believe that the selection of gas barrier materials for the encapsulation and activation of $In_2O_3$ should be considered because of the ill effect the byproduct of thermal decomposition has on the sensing materials and other thermal properties of the barrier materials.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.10
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• pp.1444-1451
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• 2018

The surface-to-volume ratio of one-dimensional (1D) semiconductor metal-oxide sensors is an important factor for achieving good gas sensing properties because it offers a wide response area. To exploit this effect, in this study, we determined the optimal calcination temperature to maximize the specific surface area and thereby the sensitivity of the sensor. The $In_2O_3$ nanorods were synthesized by using vapor-liquid-solid growth of $In_2O_3$ powders and were decorated with the Pt nanoparticles by using a sol-gel method. Subsequently, the Pt nanoparticle-decorated $In_2O_3$ nanorods were calcined at different temperatures to determine the optimal calcination temperature. The $NO_2$ gas sensing properties of five different samples (pristine uncalcined $In_2O_3$ nanorods, Pt-decorated uncalcined $In_2O_3$ nanorods, and Pt-decorated $In_2O_3$ nanorods calcined at 400, 600, and $800^{\circ}C$) were determined and compared. The Pt-decorated $In_2O_3$ nanorods calcined at $600^{\circ}C$ showed the highest surface-to-volume ratio and the strongest response to $NO_2$ gas. Moreover, these nanorods showed the shortest response/recovery times toward $NO_2$. These enhanced sensing properties are attributed to a combination of increased surface-to-volume ratio (achieved through the optimal calcination) and increased electrical/chemical sensitization (provided by the noble-metal decoration).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.299-303
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• 2013

In this study, a micro gas sensor for $NO_x$ was fabricated using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology and sol-gel process. The membrane and micro heater of the sensor platform were fabricated by a standard MEMS and CMOS technology with minor changes. The sensing electrode and micro heater were designed to have a co-planar structure with a Pt thin film layer. The size of the gas sensor device was about $2mm{\times}2mm$. Indium oxide as a sensing material for the $NO_x$ gas was synthesized by a sol-gel process. The particle size of synthesized $In_2O_3$ was identified as about 50 nm by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The maximum gas sensitivity of indium oxide, as measured in terms of the relative resistance ($R_s=R_{gas}/R_{air}$), occurred at $300^{\circ}C$ with a value of 8.0 at 1 ppm $NO_2$ gas. The response and recovery times were within 60 seconds and 2 min, respectively. The sensing properties of the $NO_2$ gas showed good linear behavior with an increase of gas concentration. This study confirms that a MEMS-based gas sensor is a potential candidate as an automobile gas sensor with many advantages: small dimension, high sensitivity, short response time and low power consumption.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.298-305
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• 2016

In this study, we treated pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) in hydrogen peroxide using electron beam (E-beam) irradiation to improve nitrogen monoxide (NO) sensing ability as an electrode material of gas sensor. The specific surface area of ACFs treated by E-beam irradiation with 400 kGy increased from $885m^2/g$ (pristine) to $1160m^2/g$ without any changes in structural property and functional group. The increase in specific surface area of the E-beam irradiated ACFs enhanced NO gas sensing properties such as response time and sensitivity. When the ACFs irradiated with 400 kGy, response time was remarkably reduced from 360 s to 210 s and sensitivity was increased by 4.5%, compared to the pristine ACFs. These results demonstrate convincingly that surface modification of ACFs using E-beam in hydrogen peroxide solution can enhance textural properties of ACFs and NO gas sensing ability of gas sensor at room temperature.