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The development of cost-effective simple methods to fabricate nanocomposites based on metal oxide (MOX) supported noble metals with improved performance is extremely demanding, specifically in the field of nanomaterial and gas sensor. In this this work, a facile one-step hydrothermal strategy to synthesize strongly-coupled TiO2 nanosheets supported with Ag nanoparticles (Ag/TiO2 heterojunction nanocomposites) is proposed, which is proved of high effectiveness for sensor applications. The structure and morphology of synthesized nanocomposites was performed by XRD, XPS, HRTEM, UV-Vis and PL spectroscopy. Compared to pristine TiO2, the sensors based on such Ag/TiO2 heterojunction nanocomposites show excellent ethanol gas sensing properties in terms of high sensitivity (8.5 towards 100 ppm), selectivity against other gases (methanal, acetone, and methanol), short response/recover times (9/10 s), and high stability (present stable response after 30 days). Such performance demonstrates this material is promising for practical gas sensor applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper demonstrated cost-effective one-step hydrothermal process to synthesize TiO2 microrods modified with Cr2O3 nanoparticles. The crystal structure, microstructure and chemical composition of the obtained materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and EDS analysis. Subsequently, for gas sensor tests the sensors were fabricated onto a ceramic tube having a designed pair of Au electrodes with four Pt wires. The results indicate that the sensors based on the optimal content of Cr2O3 nanoparticles modified TiO2 microrods possess excellent gas-sensing performance to acetone. Specifically, the sensor based on optimal 3% Cr2O3 modified TiO2 microrods exhibited high response (15), fast response/recovery time (5/28 s), outstanding selectivity (against 100 ppm ethanol, methanol and formaldehyde) and good stability (1-40 days) towards 100 ppm acetone at 300 °C. Relying on the analysis, we infer that performance can be controlled by varying the Cr2O3 contents. A plausible sensing mechanism is also discussed to explain the reasons for the enhanced acetone sensing with Cr2O3-TiO2 heterostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal oxides are excellent candidates for the detection of various gases; however, the issues such as the limited operating temperature and selectivity are the most important ones requiring the comprehensive understanding of gas adsorption kinetics on the sensing layer surfaces. To this context, the present study focuses mainly on the fabrication of a Pt/Cr-TiO2/Pt type sensor structure that is highly suitable in reducing the operating temperature (from 400 to 200 °C), extending the lower limit NO2 gas concentration (below 10 ppm) with fast response (37 s) and recovery (24 s) times. This illustrates that the sensor performance is not only solely dependent on the nature of sensing material, but also, it is significantly enhanced by using such a new kind of electrode geometry. Moreover, Cr doping into TiO2 culminates in altering the sensor response from n- to p-type and thus contributes to sensor performance enhancement by detecting low NO2 concentrations selectively at reduced operating temperatures. In addition, the NO2 surface adsorption kinetics are studied by fitting the obtained sensor response curves with Elovich, inter-particle diffusion, and pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order adsorption models. It is found that a pseudo first-order reaction model describes the best NO2 adsorption kinetics toward 7–170 ppm NO2 gas at 200 °C. Finally, the sensing mechanism is discussed on the basis of the obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excellent adsorption of water vapor on the surface of graphene oxide (GO), which contains several inherited functional groups, leads to the development of improved humidity monitoring systems that can urgently meet the high industrial demand. In this study, we fabricated a GO-based humidity sensor and investigated the influence of hydroxyl group concentration on its performance. The sensor exhibited excellent humidity sensing performance in terms of sensitivity (sensor response ∼40 for 90% RH), selectivity, stability (both long-term and short-term) and reaction time ( τ res = 8.5 s and τ rec = 13 s). Additionally, this sensor does not require external power consumption for heating; thus, the aforementioned performance (recorded at room temperature) with an applied voltage of 0.1 V can significantly reduce the power/energy consumption to about ∼1.314 × 10 -4 kW h per year. In the future, this type of sensor can be integrated into smart humidity monitoring systems to not only monitor but also control the humidity levels on a specific application area. Based on complementary characterization techniques, such as XRD, AFM, Raman and electrical measurement, here, we propose a physical-chemical sensing model to elucidate the aforementioned sensor characteristics., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)