Porous Tin Oxide Nanostructured Microspheres for Sensor Applications

Published

February 1, 2004

Author(s)

C Martinez, B Hockey, Christopher B. Montgomery, Stephen Semancik

Abstract

There is a growing need to develop highly sensitive chemical sensors for applications such as military reconnaissance and toxic waste removal. A promising route for improving device performance is to use nanostructured materials (e.g. nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes) as sensor building blocks. We have sought to enhance the sensitivity of conductometric gas sensors through the design and fabrication of porous, three-dimensional tin oxide nanoparticle structures which have very high surface area. Films were fabricated via the self-assembly from solution of nanoparticle-decorated latex microspheres, which serve as sacrificial templates. Through heating, the latex microspheres were removed to reveal a 3-dimensional structure composed of interconnected spherical nanoparticle shells with porous ultra-thin walls. Sensor measurements were performed by depositing these films onto MEMS microsensor platforms with embedded inter-digitated electrodes and heaters. We report on film conductance changes measured at different temperatures, caused by exposure to test gases (CO, H2O, MeOH) in a dry air background. We also compare the performance of these high surface area films to films prepared through conventional routes such as CVD.

Proceedings Title

Sigma Xi Postdoctoral Poster Presentations, 2004

Volume

21

Issue

No. 17

Conference Dates

February 19-20, 2004

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

applications, microspheres, nanostructured

Citation

Martinez, C. , Hockey, B. , Montgomery, C. and Semancik, S. (2004), Porous Tin Oxide Nanostructured Microspheres for Sensor Applications, Sigma Xi Postdoctoral Poster Presentations, 2004 (Accessed April 28, 2024)