• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2016

Recent light-enhanced metal oxide gas sensors are reviewed in this article. The basic mechanisms of a light-enhanced metal oxide gas sensor are discussed. Many literatures reveal that the standalone sensitivity and the response/recovery time enhancements enabled by the exposing light are not as high as the performance enhancement provided by external heating. Therefore, both optimal amount of external heating and exposed light intensity are necessary to increase the performance of these light-enhanced gas sensors. The development of highly light sensitive materials and structures is important to lower the overall power consumptions of the sensors.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1632-1636
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• 2013

$Ga_2O_3$ one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures were synthesized by using a thermal evaporation technique. The morphology, crystal structure, and sensing properties of the $Ga_2O_3$ nanostructures functionalized with Pt to $NO_2$ gas at room temperature under UV irradiation were examined. The diameters of the 1D nanostructures ranged from a few tens to a few hundreds of nanometers and the lengths ranged up to a few hundreds of micrometers. Pt nanoparticles with diameters of a few tens of nanometers were distributed around a $Ga_2O_3$ nanorod. The responses of the nanorods gas sensors fabricated from multiple networked $Ga_2O_3$ nanorods were improved 3-4 fold at $NO_2$ concentrations ranging from 1 to 5 ppm by Pt functionalization. The Pt-functionalized $Ga_2O_3$ nanorod gas sensors showed a remarkably enhanced response at room temperature under ultraviolet (UV) light illumination. In addition, the mechanisms via which the gas sensing properties of $Ga_2O_3$ nanorods are enhanced by Pt functionalization and UV irradiation are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.24.1-24.1
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• 2009

The zinc oxide (ZnO) material as the II-VI compound semiconductor is useful in various fields of device applications such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), solar cells and gas sensors due to its wide direct band gap of 3.37eV and high exciton binding energy of 60meV at room temperature. In this study, the ZnO nanorods were deposited onto homogenous buffer layer/Si(100) substrates by a hydrothermal synthesis. The Effects of the buffer layer annealing and post annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO nanorods grown by a hydrothermal synthesis were investigated. For the buffer layer annealing case, the annealed buffer layer surface became rougher with increasing of annealing temperature up to $750^{\circ}C$, while it was smoothed with more increasing of annealing temperature due to the evaporation of buffer layer. It was found that the roughest surface of buffer layer improved the structural and optical properties of ZnO nanorods. For the post annealing case, the hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods were annealed with various temperatures ranging from 450 to $900^{\circ}C$. Similarly in the buffer layer annealing case, the post annealing enhanced the properties of ZnO nanorods with increasing of annealing temperature up to $750^{\circ}C$. However, it was degraded with further increasing of annealing temperature due to the violent movement of atoms and evaporation. Finally, the buffer layer annealing and post annealing treatment could efficiently improve the properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods. The morphology and structural properties of ZnO nanorods grown by the hydrothermal synthesis were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The optical properties were also analyzed by photoluminescence (PL) measurement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.101-101
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• 2010

ZnO shows a direct band gap of 3.37eV, large exciton binding energy (~60 meV), high oxidation ability, high sensitivity to many gases, and low cost, and it has been used in various applications such as transparent electrodes, light emitting diodes (LEDs), gas sensors and photocatalysts. Among these applications ZnO as photocatalyst has considerably attracted attention over the past few years because of its high activities in removing organic contaminants generated from industrial activities. In this research, ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by spray-pyrolysis method using the zinc acetate dihydrate as starting material at synthesis temperature of $900^{\circ}C$ with concentration varied from 0.01 to 1.0M. The physical and chemical properties of the synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were examined by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transformation Infrared (FT-IR), and UV-vis spectroscopy. The Miller indices of XRD patterns indicate that the synthesized ZnO nanoparticles showed a hexagonal wurtzite structure. With increased precursor concentration, a primary, secondary particle sizes of ZnO nanoparticles increased by 0.8 to $1.5{\mu}m$ and 15 to 35nm, and their crystallinity was improved. Methyleneblue (MB) solution ($1{\mu}M$) as a test comtaminant was prepared for evaluating the photocatalytic activities of ZnO nanoparticles synthesized in different precursor concentration. The results show that the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO nanoparticles was gradually enhanced by increased precursor concentration.