The nanostructured cerium oxide powders were synthesized by spray thermal decomposition process for the use as the raw materials of resistive oxygen sensor. The synthesis routes consisted of 1) spray drying of water based organic solution made from cerium nitrate hydrate () and 2) heat treatment of spray dried precursor powders at in air atmosphere to remove the volatile components and identically to oxidize the cerium component. The produced powders have shown the loose structure agglomerated with extremely fine cerium oxide particles with about 15 nm and very high specific surface area (). The oxygen sensitivity, n ( and the response time, measured at in the sample sintered at , were about 0.25 and 3 seconds, respectively, which had much higher performances than those known in micron or sized sensors.

Ru-C nano-composite films were prepared by MOCVD, and their microstructures and their electrode properties for oxygen gas sensors were investigated. Deposited films contained Ru particles of 5-20 nm in diameter dispersed in amorphous C matrix. The AC conductivities associating to the interface charge transfer between Ru-C composite electrode and YSZ electrolyte were 100-1000 times higher than that of conventional paste-Pt electrodes. The emf values of the oxygen gas concentration cell constructed from the nano-composite electrodes and YSZ electrolyte showed the Nernstian theoretical values at low temperatures around 500 K. The response time of the concentration cell was 900 s at 500 K.