Gas sensors based on TiO2 nanostructured materials for the detection of hazardous gases: A review

Hazardous gases have been strongly associated with being a detriment to human life within the environment. The development of a reliable gas sensor with high response and selectivity is of great significance for detecting different hazardous gases. TiO2 nanomaterials are promising candidates with great potential and excellent performance in gas sensor applications, such as hydrogen, acetone, ammonia, and ethanol detection. This review begins with a detailed discussion of the different dimensional morphologies of TiO2, which affect the gas sensing performance of TiO2 sensors. The diverse morphologies of TiO2 can easily be tuned by regulating the manufacturing conditions. Meanwhile, they exhibit unique characteristics for detecting gases, including large specific surface area, superior electron transport rates, extraordinary permeability, and active reaction sites, which offer new opportunities to improve the gas sensing properties. In addition, a variety of efforts have been made to functional TiO2 nanomaterials to further enhance sensing properties, including TiO2-based composites and light-assisted gas sensors. The enhanced gas sensing mechanisms of multi-component composite nanomaterials based on TiO2 include loaded noble metals, doped elements, constructed heterojunctions, and compounded with other functional materials. Finally, several studies have been summarized to demonstrate the comparative sensing properties of TiO2-based gas sensors.