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Recent Advances in Thin Film Gas Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanosensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 6849

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Guest Editor
Electronics and Microsystems, CNRS-LAAS, University of Toulouse III, Toulouse, France
Interests: micro and nanotechnologies; sensors and microsystems for gas detection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Gas sensors have extensive applications, especially for environmental monitoring, medical and healthcare applications, and so on. The rapid real-time detection of harmful and polluting gasses in the last several decades has become of great importance in the fields of environmental control, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, and many others.

Novel gas-sensing devices based on nanostructured thin films are promising to achieve better sensitivity, selectivity, and faster response times. Thin-film gas sensors also need to be embedded into various devices, such as smartphones or wearable objects in emerging applications; therefore, they have attracted great interest.

This Special Issue aims to generate discussions on the latest advances in research on gas-sensing technologies and more particularly the challenges and opportunities offered by thin-film gas sensors.

Dr. Philippe Menini
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • gas sensors
  • thin films
  • nanomaterials
  • electrical characterization
  • reliability
  • electronic nose
  • low power
  • embedded sensors

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 4552 KiB  
Article
Ammonia and Humidity Sensing by Phthalocyanine–Corrole Complex Heterostructure Devices
by Lorena Di Zazzo, Sujithkumar Ganesh Moorthy, Rita Meunier-Prest, Eric Lesniewska, Corrado Di Natale, Roberto Paolesse and Marcel Bouvet
Sensors 2023, 23(15), 6773; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23156773 - 28 Jul 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1601
Abstract
The versatility of metal complexes of corroles has raised interest in the use of these molecules as elements of chemical sensors. The tuning of the macrocycle properties via synthetic modification of the different components of the corrole ring, such as functional groups, the [...] Read more.
The versatility of metal complexes of corroles has raised interest in the use of these molecules as elements of chemical sensors. The tuning of the macrocycle properties via synthetic modification of the different components of the corrole ring, such as functional groups, the molecular skeleton, and coordinated metal, allows for the creation of a vast library of corrole-based sensors. However, the scarce conductivity of most of the aggregates of corroles limits the development of simple conductometric sensors and requires the use of optical or mass transducers that are rather more cumbersome and less prone to be integrated into microelectronics systems. To compensate for the scarce conductivity, corroles are often used to functionalize the surface of conductive materials such as graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, or conductive polymers. Alternatively, they can be incorporated into heterojunction devices where they are interfaced with a conductive material such as a phthalocyanine. Herewith, we introduce two heterostructure sensors combining lutetium bisphthalocyanine (LuPc2) with either 5,10,15-tris(pentafluorophenyl) corrolato Cu (1) or 5,10,15-tris(4-methoxyphenyl)corrolato Cu (2). The optical spectra show that after deposition, corroles maintain their original structure. The conductivity of the devices reveals an energy barrier for interfacial charge transport for 1/LuPc2, which is a heterojunction device. On the contrary, only ohmic contacts are observed in the 2/LuPc2 device. These different electrical properties, which result from the different electron-withdrawing or -donating substituents on corrole rings, are also manifested by the opposite response with respect to ammonia (NH3), with 1/LuPc2 behaving as an n-type conductor and 2/LuPC2 behaving as a p-type conductor. Both devices are capable of detecting NH3 down to 10 ppm at room temperature. Furthermore, the sensors show high sensitivity with respect to relative humidity (RH) but with a reversible and fast response in the range of 30–60% RH. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Thin Film Gas Sensors)
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12 pages, 1788 KiB  
Article
Potential of a Miniature Spectral Analyzer for District-Scale Monitoring of Multiple Gaseous Air Pollutants
by Alaa Fathy, Martine Gnambodoe-Capochichi, Yasser M. Sabry, Momen Anwar, Amr O. Ghoname, Ahmed Saeed, Yamin Leprince-Wang, Diaa Khalil and Tarik Bourouina
Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6343; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146343 - 12 Jul 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1567
Abstract
Gas sensors that can measure multiple pollutants simultaneously are highly desirable for on-site air pollution monitoring at various scales, both indoor and outdoor. Herein, we introduce a low-cost multi-parameter gas analyzer capable of monitoring multiple gaseous pollutants simultaneously, thus allowing for true analytical [...] Read more.
Gas sensors that can measure multiple pollutants simultaneously are highly desirable for on-site air pollution monitoring at various scales, both indoor and outdoor. Herein, we introduce a low-cost multi-parameter gas analyzer capable of monitoring multiple gaseous pollutants simultaneously, thus allowing for true analytical measurement. It is a spectral sensor consisting of a Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) gas analyzer based on a mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometer. The sensor is as small as 7 × 5 × 2.5 cm3. It was deployed in an open-path configuration within a district-scale climatic chamber (Sense City, Marne-la-Vallée, France) with a volume of 20 × 20 × 8 m3. The setup included a transmitter and a receiver separated by 38 m to enable representative measurements of the entire district domain. We used a car inside the climatic chamber, turning the engine on and off to create time sequences of a pollution source. The results showed that carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) were accurately monitored using the spectral sensor, with agreement with the reference analyzers used to record the pollution levels near the car exhaust. Furthermore, the lower detection limits of CO, NO2 and NO were assessed, demonstrating the capability of the sensor to detect these pollutants. Additionally, a preliminary evaluation of the potential of the spectral sensor to screen multiple volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was conducted at the laboratory scale. Overall, the results demonstrated the potential of the proposed multi-parameter spectral gas sensor in on-site gaseous pollution monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Thin Film Gas Sensors)
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16 pages, 4632 KiB  
Article
Nanocomposite Based on HA/PVTMS/Cl2FeH8O4 as a Gas and Temperature Sensor
by Sohrab Nasiri, Marzieh Rabiei, Ieva Markuniene, Mozhgan Hosseinnezhad, Reza Ebrahimi-Kahrizsangi, Arvydas Palevicius, Andrius Vilkauskas and Giedrius Janusas
Sensors 2022, 22(24), 10012; https://doi.org/10.3390/s222410012 - 19 Dec 2022
Viewed by 2544
Abstract
In this paper, a novel nanocrystalline composite material of hydroxyapatite (HA)/polyvinyltrimethoxysilane (PVTMS)/iron(II)chloride tetrahydrate (Cl2FeH8-O4) with hexagonal structure is proposed for the fabrication of a gas/temperature sensor. Taking into account the sensitivity of HA to high temperatures, to [...] Read more.
In this paper, a novel nanocrystalline composite material of hydroxyapatite (HA)/polyvinyltrimethoxysilane (PVTMS)/iron(II)chloride tetrahydrate (Cl2FeH8-O4) with hexagonal structure is proposed for the fabrication of a gas/temperature sensor. Taking into account the sensitivity of HA to high temperatures, to prevent the collapse and breakdown of bonds and the leakage of volatiles without damaging the composite structure, a freeze-drying machine is designed and fabricated. X-ray diffraction, FTIR, SEM, EDAX, TEM, absorption and photoluminescence analyses of composite are studied. XRD is used to confirm the material structure and the crystallite size of the composite is calculated by the Monshi–Scherrer method, and a value of 81.60 ± 0.06 nm is obtained. The influence of the oxygen environment on the absorption and photoluminescence measurements of the composite and the influence of vaporized ethanol, N2 and CO on the SiO2/composite/Ag sensor device are investigated. The sensor with a 30 nm-thick layer of composite shows the highest response to vaporized ethanol, N2 and ambient CO. Overall, the composite and sensor exhibit a good selectivity to oxygen, vaporized ethanol, N2 and CO environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Thin Film Gas Sensors)
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