A model for the impact of the nanostructure size on its gas sensing properties

The size of a metal oxide nanostructure plays a key role in its performance as a gas sensor. ZnO nanostructures with different morphologies including nanowires at different diameters and nanodisks at different thicknesses were synthesized hydrothermally. Gas sensors based on individual nanostructures with different sizes were fabricated and their sensing properties were compared and investigated.

Nanowires with smaller diameter size and higher surface to volume ratio showed enhanced gas sensing performance. Also, as the nanodisk thickness gets closer to the thickness of the ZnO depletion layer, the sensitivity increases significantly due to the semi complete depletion of the nanostructure. Our results were explained using a modified general formula for a ZnO ethanol sensor.

The formula was established based on the chemical reaction between ethanol molecules and oxygen ions and considering the effect of the surface to volume ratio as well as the depletion region of the nanostructure. This work can be simply generalized for other metal oxides to enhance their performance as gas sensors.