Ferrite Gas Sensors

Soft ferrites are very important electronic materials because of their electrical and magnetic behavior. In last decade, remarkable efforts have been taken for the development of ferrite gas sensors in detection of toxic gas pollutants from vehicle exhaust, biological hazards, environment, and pollution monitoring. The parameters such as phase formation, crystallite size, particle size, grain size, dopants, surface area, sensitivity, selectivity, operating temperature, gas concentration, response time, and recovery time play an important role in development of ferrite gas sensors. These material for gas sensing covers number of gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), C2H5COOH, oxygen (O-2, hydrogen (H-2, chlorine (Cl-2), NH3, C4H10, CH3COOH, gasoline, acetylene, petrol, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Different methods are used to prepare ferrite gas sensors. The prime requisite for developing a good quality ferrite gas sensor is optimization of preparation conditions, sintering temperature, operating temperatures, concentration of dopants, etc. It is observed that the gas sensitivity depends on kinds of semiconducting material, temperature, and test gases to be detected. This paper provides comprehensive survey of ferrites as gas sensors, such as nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, cobalt, magnesium, manganese, and multi-component ferrites, prepared by various methods. The performance of these sensors including sensitivity, selectivity, stability, as well as response and recovery time, etc., are summarized in the table along with relevant references.