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Insights into the Mechanism of Gas Sensor Operation

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Metal Oxide Nanomaterials for Chemical Sensors

Part of the book series: Integrated Analytical Systems ((ANASYS))

Abstract

Since the development of the first models of gas detection on metal-oxide-based sensors much effort has been made to describe the mechanism responsible for gas sensing. Despite progress in recent years, a number of key issues remain the subject of controversy; for example, the disagreement between the results of electrophysical and spectroscopic characterization, as well as the lack of proven mechanistic description of surface reactions involved in gas sensing. In the present chapter the basics as well as the main problems and unresolved issues associated with the chemical aspects of gas sensing mechanism in chemiresistors based on semiconducting metal oxides are addressed.

“Sensors have a ‘life cycle’ consisting of preparation, activation, operation with deactivation and, possible, regeneration. Thus understanding the performance in terms of reaction and conductance mechanisms is only a part of the total understanding of a sensor.”

Dieter Kohl, Sensors and Actuators 1989, 18, 71.

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  1. Fachbereich Material- und Geowissenschaften, Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Aleksander Gurlo

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  1. College of Nanoscale Science &, Engineering, State University of New York, Albany, Fuller Road 255, Albany, 12203, New York, USA

    Michael A. Carpenter

  2. Inst. Anorganische Chemie, Universität Köln, Greinstraße 6, Köln, 50923, Germany

    Sanjay Mathur

  3. , Department of Physics, Southern Illinois University, Lincoln Drive 1245, Carbondale, 62901, Illinois, USA

    Andrei Kolmakov

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Gurlo, A. (2013). Insights into the Mechanism of Gas Sensor Operation. In: Carpenter, M., Mathur, S., Kolmakov, A. (eds) Metal Oxide Nanomaterials for Chemical Sensors. Integrated Analytical Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5395-6_1

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