Progress in the development of semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors: a review

Since the first suggestion, during the 1950s, that high-surface-area metal oxides could be used as conductometric gas sensors enormous efforts have been made to enhance both the selectivity and the sensitivity of such devices, and to reduce their operational power requirements. This development has involved the exploration of response mechanisms, the selection of the most appropriate oxide compositions, the fabrication of two-phase 'hetero-structures', the addition of metallic catalyst particles and the optimisation of the manner in which the materials are presented to the gas—the structure and the nanostructure of the sensing elements. Far more of the scientific literature has been devoted to seeking such improvements in metal oxide gas sensors than has been directed at all other solid-state gas sensors together. Recent progress in the research and development of metal oxide gas sensor technology is surveyed in this invited review. The advances that have been made are quite spectacular and the results of individual pieces of work are drawn together here so that trends can be seen. Emerging features include: the significance of n-type/p-type switching, the enhancement of sensing performance of materials through the incorporation of secondary components and the advantages of interrogating sensors with alternating current rather than direct current.