Quasi-one dimensional metal oxide semiconductors: Preparation, characterization and application as chemical sensors

The continuous evolution of nanotechnology in these years led to the production of quasi-one dimensional (Q1D) structures in a variety of morphologies such as nanowires, core-shell nanowires, nanotubes, nanobelts, hierarchical structures, nanorods, nanorings. In particular, metal oxides (MOX) are attracting an increasing interest for both fundamental and applied science. MOX Q1D are crystalline structures with well-defined chemical composition, surface terminations, free from dislocation and other extended defects. In addition, nanowires may exhibit physical properties which are significantly different from their coarse-grained polycrystalline counterpart because of their nanosized dimensions. Surface effects dominate due to the increase of their specific surface, which leads to the enhancement of the surface related properties, such as catalytic activity or surface adsorption: key properties for superior chemical sensors production. High degree of crystallinity and atomic sharp terminations make nanowires very promising for the development of a new generation of gas sensors reducing instabilities, typical in polycrystalline systems, associated with grain coalescence and drift in electrical properties. These sensitive nanocrystals may be used as resistors, and in FET based or optical based gas sensors. This article presents an up-to-date review of Q1D metal oxide materials research for gas sensors application, due to the great research effort in the field it could not coverall the interesting works reported, the ones that, according to the authors, are going to contribute to this field's further development were selected and described. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.