Gas sensors are of a great interest for applications including toxic or explosive gases detection in both in-house and industrial environments, air quality monitoring, medical diagnostics, or control of food/cosmetic properties. In the area of semiconductor metal oxides (SMOs)-based sensors, a lot of effort has been devoted to improve the sensing characteristics. In this work, we report on a general methodology for improving the selectivity of SMOx nanowires sensors, based on the coverage of ZnO nanowires with a thin ZIF-8 molecular sieve membrane. The optimized ZnO@ZIF-8-based nanocomposite sensor shows markedly selective response to H2 in comparison with the pristine ZnO nanowires sensor, while showing the negligible sensing response to C7H8 and C6H6. This original MOF-membrane encapsulation strategy applied to nanowires sensor architecture pave the way for other complex 3D architectures and various types of applications requiring either gas or ion selectivity, such as biosensors, photo(catalysts), and electrodes.

With the tremendous advances in technology, gas-sensing devices are being popularly used in many distinct areas, including indoor environments, industries, aviation, and detectors for various toxic domestic gases and vapors. Even though the most popular type of gas sensor, namely, resistive-based gas sensors, have many advantages over other types of gas sensors, their high working temperatures lead to high energy consumption, thereby limiting their practical applications, especially in mobile and portable devices. As possible ways to deal with the high-power consumption of resistance-based sensors, different strategies such as self-heating, MEMS technology, and room-temperature operation using especial morphologies, have been introduced in recent years. In this review, we discuss different types of energy-saving chemisresitive gas sensors and their application in the fields of environmental monitoring. At the end, the review will be concluded by providing a summary, challenges and future perspectives.

Sensing of benzene, toluene and xylene gases using resistive-based gas sensors.

No abstract

SnO2-ZnO core-shell nanofibers were synthesized via a novel two-step process. First, SnO2 nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning. In sequence, ZnO shell layers were deposited using atomic layer deposition on the electrospinning synthesized SnO2 nanofibers. To demonstrate the practical applications of the synthesized core-shell nanofibers, we investigated their sensing properties to O2 and NO2. The high sensitivity and dynamic repeatability observed in these sensors reveal that the core-shell nanofibers are promising as sensitive and reliable chemical sensors.

Herein, we report the fabrication of hydrogen gas sensors with enhanced sensitivity and excellent selectivity. The sensor device is based on the strategic combination of ZnO nanowires (NWs) decorated with palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) and a molecular sieve metal-organic framework (MOF) nanomembrane (ZIF-8). The Pd NPs permit the sensors to reach maximal signal responses, whereas the ZIF-8 overcoat enables for an excellent selectivity. Three steps were employed for the fabrication: (i) coating of a miniaturized sensor with vapor-grown ZnO NWs, (ii) decoration of these NWs with Pd NPs by atomic layer deposition, and (iii) partial solvothermal conversion of the tuned NWs surface to ZIF-8 nanomembrane. The microstructure and composition investigations of the ZIF-8/Pd/ZnO nanostructured materials confirmed the presence of both metallic Pd NPs and uniform ZIF-8 thin membrane layer. The integration of these nanomaterials within a miniaturized sensor device enabled the assessment of their performance for H detection at concentrations as low as 10 ppm in the presence of various gases such as CH, CH, CHOH, and CHCOCH. Remarkably high-response signals of 3.2, 4.7, and 6.7 ( R/ R) have been measured for H detection at only 10, 30, and 50 ppm, whereas no noticeable response toward other tested gases was detected, thus confirming the excellent H selectivity obtained with such a sensor design. The results obtained showed that the performance of gas sensors toward H gas can be greatly increased by both the addition of Pd NPs and the use of ZIF-8 coating, acting as a molecular sieve membrane. Furthermore, the presented strategy could be extended toward the sensing of other species by a judicious choice of both the metallic NPs and MOF materials with tuned properties for specific molecule detection, thus opening a new avenue for the preparation of highly selective sensing devices.

We report a dual functional sensing mechanism for ultrasensitive chemoresistive sensors based on SnO2-ZnO core-shell nanowires (C-S NWs) for detection of trace amounts of reducing gases. C-S NWs were synthesized by a two-step process, in which core SnO2 nanowires were first prepared by vapor-liquid-solid growth and ZnO shell layers were subsequently deposited by atomic layer deposition. The radial modulation of the electron-depleted shell layer was accomplished by controlling its thickness. The sensing capabilities of C-S NWs were investigated in terms of CO, which is a typical reducing gas. At an optimized shell thickness, C-S NWs showed the best CO sensing ability, which was quite superior to that of pure SnO2 nanowires without a shell. The dual functional sensing mechanism is proposed as the sensing mechanism in these nanowires and is based on the combination of the radial modulation effect of the electron-depleted shell and the electric field smearing effect.

Based on the radial modulation of electron-depleted shell layers in SnO 2 -ZnO core-shell nanofibers (CSNs), a novel approach is proposed for the detection of very low concentrations of reducing gases. In this work, SnO 2 -ZnO CSNs were synthesized by a two-step process: core SnO 2 nanofibers were first prepared by electrospinning, followed by the preparation of ZnO shell layers by atomic layer deposition. The radial modulation of electron depletion in the CSN shells was accomplished by controlling the shell thickness.The sensing capabilities of CSNs were investigated with respect to CO and NO 2 that represent typical reducing and oxidizing gases, respectively. In the case of CO at a critical shell thickness, the CSN-based sensors showed greatly improved sensing capabilities compared with those fabricated on the basis of either pure SnO 2 or pure ZnO nanofibers. In sharp contrast, CSN sensors revealed inferior sensing capabilities for NO 2 . The results can be explained by a model based on the radial modulation of the electron-depleted CSN shells. The model suggests that CSNs comprising dissimilar materials having different energy-band structures represent an effective sensing platform for the detection of low concentrations of reducing gases when the shell thickness is equivalent to the Debye length.