1.4.5 The Electronic Nose: The Effect of Metal Oxide Modifications to Well-Aligned ZnO Nanowire Arrays for Highly Sensitive and Selective Gas Detection

Event
14th International Meeting on Chemical Sensors - IMCS 2012
2012-05-20 - 2012-05-23
Nürnberg/Nuremberg, Germany
Chapter
1.4 Sensors Arrays
Author(s)
H. Su, J. Chen, K. Wang, A. Ayyad, W. Zhou - Advanced Materials Research Institute (AMRI), University of New Orleans (USA)
Pages
126 - 129
DOI
10.5162/IMCS2012/1.4.5
ISBN
978-3-9813484-2-2
Price
free

Abstract

To mimic biological olfactory receptor arrays, a three dimensional (3D) “electronic nose” was fabricated by using well-aligned ZnO nanowire arrays modified with different metal oxides. Metal oxide nanowire arrays share 3D structures similar to mammalian olfactory receptor arrays, with thousands of vertically aligned nanowires providing a high reception area which can significantly enhance the sensors’ sensitivity. Meanwhile, with different material decorations, each array of nanowires can produce a distinguishable response for each separate analyte, which would provide a promising way to improve the selectivity. We have successfully fabricated gas sensors based on SnO2, In2O3, and WO3 coatings which have discriminated five gases which are NO2, H2S, H2, NH3, and CO. The sensitivity to NO2 and H2S has reached down to the ppb level.

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