Low-Concentration NOx Gas Analysis Using Single Bimodular ZnO Nanorod Sensor

Quantitative measurement of the nitrogen oxide mixture (NOx, usually of NO and NO2) usually relies on sophisticated, space-consuming, and expensive spectroscopy techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and chemi-luminescence detection (CLD). The direct and portable measurement solutions are lacking in this regard. In this work, by utilizing the bimodular sensing strategy, we successfully demonstrated the differential measurement of NOx with errors smaller than 8.3%, by correlating the sensor electrical and electrochemical responses. The effective detection is successfully displayed in the low-concentration ranges of 1–10 ppm for NO and 100 ppb–1 ppm for NO2, where weak competitive gas co-adsorption mitigated the cross-sensitivities compared to the higher-concentration range. Based on the electron occupation with negligible competitive adsorption, the accurate theoretic prediction of the mixture responses versus component concentration relieves the reliance on repeated calibration and empirical functions. With the miniaturized size and simplified electrical feedthrough, the single bimodular nanorod sensor provides a promising solution for direct and portable NOx analysis at low concentrations.