Metal oxide based heterojunctions for gas sensors: A review

Abstract

The construction of heterojunctions has been widely applied to improve the gas sensing performance of composites composed of nanostructured metal oxides. This review summarises the recent progress on assembly methods and gas sensing behaviours of sensors based on nanostruc-tured metal oxide heterojunctions. Various methods, including the hydrothermal method, elec-trospinning and chemical vapour deposition, have been successfully employed to establish metal oxide heterojunctions in the sensing materials. The sensors composed with the built nanostruc-tured heterojunctions were found to show enhanced gas sensing performance with higher sensor responses and shorter response times to the targeted reducing or oxidising gases compare with those of the pure metal oxides. Moreover, the enhanced gas sensing mechanisms of the metal ox-ide-based heterojunctions to the reducing or oxidising gases are also discussed, with the main emphasis on the important role of the potential barrier on the accumulation layer.