Tailoring the structure of metal oxide nanostructures towards enhanced sensing properties for environmental applications

The present article reviews recent works in our laboratory about the sensing properties to toxic gases using nanostructured WO3, TiO2, F-TiO2, and CuO functionalized quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors. WO3 and TiO2 functionalized QCM sensors have much shorter response time than those functionalized by conventional hydrogen-bond acidic branched copolymers for detection of dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP). F-TiO2 functionalized QCM sensors can improve the gas sensing characteristics by shortening the response time but at the price of partial irreversibility. The sensing mechanism was examined by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). Varied CuO nanostructures were synthesized by simple modulation of reaction conditions. All the as-prepared CuO was applied on QCM resonators and explored for HCN sensing. Surprisingly, responses of all the sensors to HCN were found to be in an opposite direction as compared with other common volatile substances, offering excellent selectivity for HCN detection. The sensitivity was very high, and the response and recovery were very fast. Comparison of the specific surface areas of CuO nanostructures showed that CuO of higher surface area is more sensitive than that of lower surface area, indicating that the specific surface area of these CuO nanostructures plays an important role in the sensitivity of related sensors. Based on experimental results, a sensing mechanism was proposed in which a surface redox reaction occurs between CuO and Cu2O on the CuO nanostructures reversibly upon contact with HCN and air, respectively. The CuO functionalized QCM sensors are considered to be a promising candidate for trace HCN gas detection in practical applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.