Fabrication of Stack-Structured Gas Sensor of LaCrxCo1-xO3/Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 and Its NOx Sensing Properties
Impedancemetric NOx (NO and NO2) gas sensors were designed with a stacked-layer structure and fabricated using LaCrxCo1-xO3 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1) as the receptor material and Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 plates as the solid-electrolyte transducer material. The LaCrxCo1-xO3 layers were prepared with a polymeric precursor method that used ethylene glycol as the solvent, acetyl acetone as the chelating agent, and polyvinylpyrrolidone as the polymer additive. The effects of the Co concentration on the structural, morphological, and NOx sensing properties of the LaCrxCo1-xO3 powders were investigated with powder Xray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and its response to 20~250 ppm of NOx at 400 oC (for 1 kHz and 0.5 V), respectively. When the as-prepared precursors were calcined at 700 oC, only a single phase was detected, which corresponded to a perovskite-type structure. The XRD results showed that as the Co concentration of the LaCrxCo1-xO3 powders increased, the crystal structure was transformed from an orthorhombic phase to a rhombohedral phase. Moreover, the LaCrxCo1-xO3 powders with 0 ≤ x < 0.8 had a rhombohedral symmetry. The size of the particles in the LaCrxCo1-xO3 powders increased from 0.1 to 0.5 μm as the Co concentration increased. The sensing performance of the stack-structured LaCrxCo1-xO3/Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 sensors was found to divide the impedance component between the resistance and capacitance. The response of these sensors to NO gas was more sensitive than that to NO2 gas. Compared to other impedancemetric sensors, the LaCr0.8Co0.2O3/Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3 sensor exhibited good reversibility and reliable sensingresponse properties for NOx gases.