Semiconducting metal oxides have been frequently used as gas sensing materials. While zinc oxide is a popular material for such applications, structures such as nanowires, nanorods and nanotubes, due to their large surface area, are natural candidates for use as gas sensors of higher sensitivity. The compound ZnO has been studied, due to its chemical and thermal stability, for use as an n-type semiconducting gas sensor. ZnO has a large exciton binding energy and a large bandgap energy at room temperature. Also, ZnO is sensitive to toxic and combustible gases. The NO gas properties of zinc oxide-single wall carbon nanotube (ZnO-SWCNT) composites were investigated. Fabrication includes the deposition of porous SWCNTs on thermally oxidized SiO2 substrates followed by sputter deposition of Zn and thermal oxidation at 400˚C in oxygen. The Zn films were controlled to 50 nm thicknesses. The effects of microstructure and gas sensing properties were studied for process optimization through comparison of ZnO-SWCNT composites with ZnO film. The basic sensor response behavior to 10 ppm NO gas were checked at different operation temperatures in the range of 150-300˚C. The highest sensor responses were observed at 300˚C in ZnO film and 250˚C in ZnO-SWCNT composites. The ZnO-SWCNT composite sensor showed a sensor response (~1300%) five times higher than that of pure ZnO thin film sensors at an operation temperature of 250˚C.

A cobalt oxide - tin oxide nanocomposite based gas sensor on an SiO2 substrate was fabricated. Granular thin film of tin oxide was formed by a rheotaxial growth and thermal oxidation method using dc magnetron sputtering of Sn. Nano particles of cobalt oxide were spin-coated on the tin oxide. The cobalt oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by polymer-assisted deposition method, which is a simple cost-effective versatile synthesis method for various metal oxides. The thickness of the film can be controlled over a wide range of thicknesses. The composite structures thus formed were characterized in terms of morphology and gas sensing properties for reduction gas of H2. The composites showed a highest response of 240% at 250˚C upon exposure to 4% H2. This response is higher than those observed in pure SnO2 (90%) and Co3O4 (70%) thin films. The improved response with the composite structure may be related to the additional formation of electrically active defects at the interfaces. The composite sensor shows a very fast response and good reproducibility.

Hybridization of semiconductor materials with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a recent field of interest in which new nanodevice fabrication and applications are expected. In this work, nanowire type GaAs structures are synthesized on porous single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as templates using the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique. The field emission properties of the as-synthesized products were investigated to suggest their potential applications as cold electron sources, as well. The SWCNT template was synthesized by the arc-discharge method. SWCNT samples were heat-treated at 400˚C under an N2/O2 atmosphere to remove amorphous carbon. After heat treatment, GaAs was grown on the SWCNT template. The growth conditions of the GaAs in the MBE system were set by changing the growth temperatures from 400˚C to 600˚C. The morphology of the GaAs synthesized on the SWCNTs strongly depends on the substrate temperature. Namely, nano-crystalline beads of GaAs are formed on the CNTs under 500˚C, while nanowire structures begin to form on the beads above 600˚C. The crystal qualities of GaAs and SWCNT were examined by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra. The field emission properties of the synthesized GaAs nanowires were also investigated and a low turn-on field of 2.0 V/μm was achieved. But, the turn-on field was increased in the second and third measurements. It is thought that arsenic atoms were evaporated during the measurement of the field emission.