Hierarchical Nanostructures for Gas Sensors

A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2019) | Viewed by 14824

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Valotti 9, 25133 Brescia, Italy
Interests: metal oxide nanostructures; carbon-containing nanomaterials; organic–inorganic composites; surface chemistry and surface physics; gas- and biosensors; flexible functional devices; cyber chemical systems for health; food and environmental monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Sensor Lab, Department of Information Engineering (DII), University of Brescia, Via Valotti 9, 25133 Brescia, Italy
Interests: metal oxides; nanowires; chemical sensors; heterostructures; artificial olfaction; material characterization; material synthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hierarchically-assembled nanostructures are considered to be among the most attractive materials and have been widely exploited in various technological applications. Intensive studies were carried out by many scientific groups to develop new strategies and to improve the techniques for the synthesis of hierarchically assembled nanomaterials. The studies have shown that these nanostructures, with different and tuneable morphologies, are good candidates for the manufacturing of sensing devices, which provide enhanced safety in our everyday life. In particular, hierarchical nanostructures became important materials for the fabrication of gas sensors, with applications in environmental monitoring and human health. Further extensive efforts have been made to improve the sensing performance of hierarchical nanostructures by the preparation of composite materials, which can open new perspectives for the fabrication of gas sensor devices.

The goal of this Special Issue is to present the recent achievements on the synthesis methods of any kind of hierarchically assembled nanostructures, including, but not limited to, metal oxides, silicon, graphene, and other 1D, 2D and 3D materials. Particular relevance should be given to the enhancement of the functional properties of these materials for gas sensing, in particular regarding the sensitivity, the selectivity and the response time toward specific chemical compounds. Sensing mechanism may be addressed, as well as the application of these materials in real world sensing platforms.

We invite the researchers working on this topic to submit their latest research studies to this special issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Dr. Vardan Galstyan
Dr. Dario Zappa
Prof. Dr. Elisabetta Comini
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Synthesis of nanostructures
  • Morphological, structural and/or functional characterization
  • Hierarchical assembling
  • Composite materials
  • Chemical sensors
  • Optical sensors

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 3532 KiB  
Article
Long- and Short-Range Ordered Gold Nanoholes as Large-Area Optical Transducers in Sensing Applications
by Maura Cesaria, Adriano Colombelli, Daniela Lospinoso, Antonietta Taurino, Enrico Melissano, Roberto Rella and Maria Grazia Manera
Chemosensors 2019, 7(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors7010013 - 15 Mar 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4585
Abstract
Unconventional lithography (such as nanosphere lithography (NSL) and colloidal lithography (CL)) is an attractive alternative to sequential and very expensive conventional lithography for the low-cost fabrication of large-area nano-optical devices. Among these, nanohole (NH) arrays are widely studied in nanoplasmonics as transducers for [...] Read more.
Unconventional lithography (such as nanosphere lithography (NSL) and colloidal lithography (CL)) is an attractive alternative to sequential and very expensive conventional lithography for the low-cost fabrication of large-area nano-optical devices. Among these, nanohole (NH) arrays are widely studied in nanoplasmonics as transducers for sensing applications. In this work, both NSL and CL are implemented to fabricate two-dimensional distributions of gold NHs. In the case of NSL, highly ordered arrays of gold NHs distributed in a hexagonal lattice onto glass substrates were fabricated by a simple and reproducible approach based on the self-assembling of close-packed 500 nm diameter polystyrene particles at an air/water interface. After the transfer onto a solid substrate, the colloidal masks were processed to reduce the colloidal size in a controllable way. In parallel, CL was implemented with short-range ordered gold NH arrays onto glass substrates that were fabricated by electrostatically-driven self-assembly of negatively charged colloids onto a polydiallyldimethylammonium (PDDA) monolayer. These distributions were optimized as a function of the colloidal adsorption time. For both approaches, controllable and reproducible procedures are presented and discussed. The optical responses of the NH structures are related to the short-range ordering level, and their good performances as refractive index transducers are demonstrated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hierarchical Nanostructures for Gas Sensors)
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11 pages, 2135 KiB  
Article
Hydrogen Sensing Properties of Co-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles
by Fatemeh Moosavi, Mohammad Ebrahim Bahrololoom, Ramin Kamjou, Ali Mirzaei, Salvatore Gianluca Leonardi and Giovanni Neri
Chemosensors 2018, 6(4), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors6040061 - 5 Dec 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4501
Abstract
In this study, the gas sensing properties of Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (Co-ZnO NPs) synthesized via a simple sol-gel method are reported. The microstructure and morphology of the synthesized Co-ZnO NPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. Co-ZnO [...] Read more.
In this study, the gas sensing properties of Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (Co-ZnO NPs) synthesized via a simple sol-gel method are reported. The microstructure and morphology of the synthesized Co-ZnO NPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. Co-ZnO NPs were then used for developing a conductometric gas sensor for the detection, at mild temperature, of low concentration of hydrogen (H2) in air. To evaluate the selectivity of the sensor, the sensing behavior toward some VOCs such as ethanol and acetone, which represent the most important interferents for breath hydrogen analysis, was also investigated in detail. Results reported demonstrated better selectivity toward hydrogen of the Co-ZnO NPs sensor when compared to pure ZnO. The main factors contributing to this behavior, i.e., the transition from n-type behavior of pristine ZnO to p-type behavior upon Co-doping, the modification of oxygen vacancies and acid-base characteristics have been considered. Hence, this study highlights the importance of Co doping of ZnO to realize a high performance breath hydrogen sensor. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hierarchical Nanostructures for Gas Sensors)
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11 pages, 2663 KiB  
Article
Nanoporous Silica-Dye Microspheres for Enhanced Colorimetric Detection of Cyclohexanone
by Zheng Li
Chemosensors 2018, 6(3), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors6030034 - 13 Aug 2018
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4701
Abstract
Forensic detection of non-volatile nitro explosives poses a difficult analytical challenge. A colorimetric sensor comprising of ultrasonically prepared silica-dye microspheres was developed for the sensitive gas detection of cyclohexanone, a volatile marker of explosives 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX) and 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX). The silica-dye composites were [...] Read more.
Forensic detection of non-volatile nitro explosives poses a difficult analytical challenge. A colorimetric sensor comprising of ultrasonically prepared silica-dye microspheres was developed for the sensitive gas detection of cyclohexanone, a volatile marker of explosives 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX) and 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX). The silica-dye composites were synthesized from the hydrolysis of ultrasonically sprayed organosiloxanes under mild heating conditions (150 °C), which yielded microspherical, nanoporous structures with high surface area (~300 m2/g) for gas exposure. The sensor inks were deposited on cellulose paper and given sensitive colorimetric responses to trace the amount of cyclohexanone vapors even at sub-ppm levels, with a detection limit down to ~150 ppb. The sensor showed high chemical specificity towards cyclohexanone against humidity and other classes of common solvents, including ethanol, acetonitrile, ether, ethyl acetate, and ammonia. Paper-based colorimetric sensors with hierarchical nanostructures could represent an alternative sensing material for practical applications in the detection of explosives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hierarchical Nanostructures for Gas Sensors)
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