Micro-electronic gas sensor devices were developed for the detection of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), and formaldehyde (HCHO), as well as binary mixed-gas systems. Four gas sensing materials for different target gases, Pd-SnO2 for CO, In2O3 for NOx, Ru-WO3 for NH3, and SnO2-ZnO for HCHO, were synthesized using a sol-gel method, and sensor devices were then fabricated using a micro sensor platform. The gas sensing behavior and sensor response to the gas mixture were examined for six mixed gas systems using the experimental data in MEMS gas sensor arrays in sole gases and their mixtures. The gas sensing behavior with the mixed gas system suggests that specific adsorption and selective activation of the adsorption sites might occur in gas mixtures, and allow selectivity for the adsorption of a particular gas. The careful pattern recognition of sensing data obtained by the sensor array made it possible to distinguish a gas species from a gas mixture and to measure its concentration.

산업이 발달함에 따라 이산화탄소, 휘발성 유기 화합물, 일산화탄소 등과 같은 독성 가스의 감지 및 모니터링이 중요시되고 있다. 새롭게 합성된 0 차원의 비납계 무기 페로브스카이트 소재는 광학적 방법과 전기적 방법을 융합하여 사용할 수 있는 가스 센서 특성을 가진다. 친환경 가스 센서는 결정의 상변이를 기반으로, 광학 및 전기적 특성 변화를 가져 하이드록실기 감지가 가능하며, 하이드록실기 극성과의 상관관계를 통해 차세대 센서 소자로의 응용 가능성이 기대된다.

In the present investigation we show the effect of Al doping on the length, size, shape, morphology, and sensing property of ZnO nanorods. Effect of Al doping ultimately leads to tuning of electrical and optical properties of ZnO nanorods. Undoped and Al-doped well aligned ZnO nanorods are grown on sputtered ZnO/SiO2/Si (100) pre-grown seed layer substrates by hydrothermal method. The molar ratio of dopant (aluminium nitrate) in the solution, [Al/Zn], is varied from 0.1 % to 3 %. To extract structural and microstructural information we employ field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. The prepared ZnO nanorods show preferred orientation of ZnO <0001> and are well aligned vertically. The effects of Al doping on the electrical and optical properties are observed by Hall measurement and photoluminescence spectroscopy, respectively, at room temperature. We observe that the diameter and resistivity of the nanorods reach their lowest levels, the carrier concentration becomes high, and emission peak tends to approach the band edge emission of ZnO around 0.5% of Al doping. Sensing behavior of the grown ZnO nanorod samples is tested for H2 gas. The 0.5 mol% Al-doped sample shows highest sensitivity values of ~ 60 % at 250 ˚C and ~ 50 % at 220 ˚C.

Using first-principles theory, we investigated the adsorption performance of CoN4- CNT towards six small gases including NO, O2, H2, H2S, NH3, and CH4, for exploiting its potential application for chemical gas sensors. The frontier molecular orbital theory was conducted to help understand the conductivity change of the proposed material at the presence of gas molecules. The desorption behavior of gas molecules from CoN4- CNT surface at ambient temperature was analyzed as well to determine its suitability for sensing application. Results show that CoN4- CNT is a promising material for O2 and NH3 sensing due to their desirable adsorption and desorption behaviors while not appropriate for sensing NO due to the poor desorption ability and for sensing CH4 and H2 given the poor adsorption behavior. Our calculation would provide a first insight into the CoN4- embedded effect on the structural and electronic properties of single-walled CNT, and shed light on the application of CoN4- CNT towards sensing of small gases.

In this study, the odor generated in a livestock farm with 500 heads of finisher breed in 661 m² was monitored during 6 months using a gas sensor, a wired / wireless communication system and database server. Odor unit, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) were monitored using the gas sensor. To show the tendency of odorous substances generation, the odor concentration was shown in the graph on a monthly and daily basis. Among the analysis items, the maximum generation of odor was found to be closely related to the generation of hydrogen sulfide. Through observing the daily and monthly trends of odor substances, it was found that each substance was a useful indicator for monitoring odor, because ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, odor and TVOC were increased and decreased in a similar pattern. The odors were highest in the hours of the early morning (00:00-05:00), the evening (18:00-23:00), and the morning (06:00-11:00) in a day. After the use of the microbial agent was discontinued in autumn (October), anaerobic digestion of the manure in a pit proceeded and the amount of hydrogen sulfide increased. Therefore, despite a slight decrease in ammonia production, the odor unit level did not decrease after October but rather was somewhat increased. In the future, the use of the odor monitoring system is expected to improve the efficiency of odor sources management.

Urchin-structured zinc oxide(ZnO) nanorod(NR) gas sensors were successfully demonstrated on a polyimide(PI) substrate, using single wall carbon nanotubes(SWCNTs) as the electrode. The ZnO NRs were grown with ZnO shells arranged at regular intervals to form a network structure with maximized surface area. The high surface area and numerous junctions of the NR network structure was the key to excellent gas sensing performance. Moreover, the SWCNTs formed a junction barrier with the ZnO which further improved sensor characteristics. The fabricated urchin-structured ZnO NR gas sensors exhibited superior performance upon NO2 exposure with a stable response of 110, fast rise and decay times of 38 and 24 sec, respectively. Comparative analyses revealed that the high performance of the sensors was due to a combination of high surface area, numerous active junction points, and the use of the SWCNTs electrode. Furthermore, the urchin-structured ZnO NR gas sensors showed sustainable mechanical stability. Although degradation of the devices progressed during repeated flexibility tests, the sensors were still operational even after 10000 cycles of a bending test with a radius of curvature of 5 mm.

Fabrication of iron oxide/carbon nanotube composite structures for detection of ammonia gas at room temperature is reported. The iron oxide/carbon nanotube composite structures are fabricated by in situ co-arc-discharge method using a graphite source with varying numbers of iron wires inserted. The composite structures reveal higher response signals at room temperature than at high temperatures. As the number of iron wires inserted increased, the volume of carbon nanotubes and iron nanoparticles produced increased. The oxidation condition of the composite structures varied the carbon nanotube/iron oxide ratio in the structure and, consequently, the resistance of the structures and, finally, the ammonia gas sensing performance. The highest sensor performance was realized with 500 oC/2 h oxidation heat-treatment condition, in which most of the carbon nanotubes were removed from the composite and iron oxide played the main role of ammonia sensing. The response signal level was 62% at room temperature. We also found that UV irradiation enhances the sensing response with reduced recovery time.

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.

We present an excellent detection for nitrogen monoxide (NO) gas using polycrystalline ZnO wire-like films synthesized via a simple method combined with sputtering of Zn metallic films and subsequent thermal oxidation of the sputtered Zn nanowire films in dry air. Structural and morphological characterization revealed that it would be possible to synthesize polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite ZnO films of a wire-like nanostructure with widths of 100-150 nm and lengths of several microns by controlling the sputtering conditions. It was found from the gas sensing measurements that the ZnO wirelike thin film gas sensor showed a significantly high response, with a maximum value of 29.2 for 2 ppm NO at 200 oC, as well as a reversible fast response to NO with a very low detection limit of 50 ppb. In addition, the ZnO wire-like thin film gas sensor also displayed an NO-selective sensing response for NO, O2, H2, NH3, and CO gases. Our results illustrate that polycrystalline ZnO wire-like thin films are potential sensing materials for the fabrication of NO-sensitive high-performance gas sensors.

Nanorod ZnO and spherical nano ZnO for gas sensors were prepared by hydrothermal reaction method and hydrazine method, respectively. The nano-ZnO gas sensors were fabricated by a screen printing method on alumina substrates. The gas sensing properties were investigated for hydrocarbon gas. The effects of Co concentration on the structural and morphological properties of the nano ZnO:Co were investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. XRD patterns revealed that nanorod and spherical ZnO:Co with a wurtzite structure were grown with (1 0 0), (0 0 2), (1 0 1) peaks. The sensitivity of nanorod and spherical ZnO:Co sensors was measured for 5 ppm CH4 and CH3CH2CH3 gas at room temperature by comparing the resistance in air with that in target gases. The highest sensitivity to the CH4 and CH3CH2CH3 gas of spherical nano ZnO:Co sensors was observed at Co 6 wt%. The spherical nano ZnO:Co sensor exhibited a higher sensitivity to hydrocarbon gas than nanorod ZnO.

H2S is a flammable toxic gas that can be produced in plants, mines, and industries and is especially fatal to humanbody. In this study, CuO nanowire structure with high porosity was fabricated by deposition of copper on highly porous single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) template followed by oxidation. The SWCNT template was formed on alumina substrates bythe arc-discharge method. The oxidation temperatures for Cu nanowires were varied from 400 to 800oC. The morphology andsensing properties of the CuO nanowire sensor were characterized by FESEM, Raman spectroscopy, XPS, XRD, and current-voltage examination. The H2S gas sensing properties were carried out at different operating temperatures using dry air as thecarrier gas. The CuO nanowire structure oxidized at 800oC showed the highest response at the lowest operating temperatureof150oC. The optimum operating temperature was shifted to higher temperature to 300oC as the oxidation temperature waslowered. The results were discussed based on the mechanisms of the reaction with ionosorbed oxygen and the CuS formationreaction on the surface.

In this study, highly sensitive hydrogen micro gas sensors of the multi-layer and micro-heater type were designed and fabricated using the micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) process and palladium catalytic metal. The dimensions of the fabricated hydrogen gas sensor were about 5mm×4mm and the sensing layer of palladium metal was deposited in the middle of the device. The sensing palladium films were modified to be nano-honeycomb and nano-hemisphere structures using an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template and nano-sized polystyrene beads, respectively. The sensitivities (Rs), which are the ratio of the relative resistance were significantly improved and reached levels of 0.783% and 1.045 % with 2,000 ppm H2 at 70˚C for nano-honeycomb and nano-hemisphere structured Pd films, respectively, on the other hand, the sensitivity was 0.638% for the plain Pd thin film. The improvement of sensitivities for the nano-honeycomb and nano-hemisphere structured Pd films with respect to the plain Pd-thin film was thought to be due to the nanoporous surface topographies of AAO and nano-sized polystyrene beads.

This study was carried out to investigate the response characteristics of a hydrogen sulfide electrochemical gassensor for several wastewater odors. At first, it was found that bubbling sampling method was superior toheadspace sampling method in terms of sensor sensitivity. High correlation between odor concentration and sensorresults was shown for two wastewater which were r=0.977 for food-waste recycling wastewater and r=0.997for food industry wastewater. On the other hand, no correlation (r=0.258) was found for plating wastewater,because hydrogen sulfide was not the main odorant for that.

We report a highly sensitive NO2 gas sensor based on multi-layer graphene (MLG) films synthesized by a chemical vapor deposition method on a microheater-embedded flexible substrate. The MLG could detect low-concentration NO2 even at sub-ppm (<200 ppb) levels. It also exhibited a high resistance change of ~6% when it was exposed to 1 ppm NO2 gas at room temperature for 1 min. The exceptionally high sensitivity could be attributed to the large number of NO2 molecule adsorption sites on the MLG due to its a large surface area and various defect-sites, and to the high mobility of carriers transferred between the MLG films and the adsorbed gas molecules. Although desorption of the NO2 molecules was slow, it could be enhanced by an additional annealing process using an embedded Au microheater. The outstanding mechanical flexibility of the graphene film ensures the stable sensing response of the device under extreme bending stress. Our large-scale and easily reproducible MLG films can provide a proof-of-concept for future flexible NO2 gas sensor devices.

In this study, a micro gas sensor for NOx was fabricated using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology and sol-gel process. The membrane and micro heater of the sensor platform were fabricated by a standard MEMS and CMOS technology with minor changes. The sensing electrode and micro heater were designed to have a co-planar structure with a Pt thin film layer. The size of the gas sensor device was about 2mm×2mm. Indium oxide as a sensing material for the NOx gas was synthesized by a sol-gel process. The particle size of synthesized In2O3 was identified as about 50 nm by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The maximum gas sensitivity of indium oxide, as measured in terms of the relative resistance (Rs=Rgas/Rair), occurred at 300˚C with a value of 8.0 at 1 ppm NO2 gas. The response and recovery times were within 60 seconds and 2 min, respectively. The sensing properties of the NO2 gas showed good linear behavior with an increase of gas concentration. This study confirms that a MEMS-based gas sensor is a potential candidate as an automobile gas sensor with many advantages: small dimension, high sensitivity, short response time and low power consumption.