Novel Carbon Dioxide Microsensor Based on Tin Oxide Nanomaterial Doped With Copper Oxide

• Published in: IEEE sensors journal Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 235 - 236
• Main Authors: Xu, J.C., Hunter, G.W., Lukco, D., Chung-Chiun Liu, Ward, B.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2009; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide ({\rm CO}_{2}); Chemicals; Copper; copper oxide (CuO); Copper oxides; Fires; Gas detectors; Microelectromechanical systems; microsensor; Microsensors; Monitoring; Nanocomposites; nanomaterial; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Sensors; Stability; Tin; Tin dioxide; tin oxide ({\rm SnO}_{2}); Tin oxides
• ISSN: 1530-437X; 1558-1748
• DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2008.2011953

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is one of the major indicators of fire and therefore its measurement is very important for low-false-alarm fire detection and emissions monitoring. However, only a limited number of CO 2 sensing materials exist due to the high chemical stability of CO 2 . In this work, a novel CO 2 microsensor based on nanocrystalline tin oxide (SnO 2 ) doped with copper oxide (CuO) has been successfully demonstrated. The CuO-SnO 2 based CO 2 microsensors are fabricated by means of microelectromechanical systems technology and sol-gel nanomaterial-synthesis processes. At a doping level of CuO : SnO 2 = 1 : 8 (molar ratio), the resistance of the sensor has a linear response to CO 2 concentrations for the range of 1% to 4% CO 2 in air at 450 deg C. This approach has demonstrated the use of SnO 2 , typically used for the detection of reducing gases, in the detection of an oxidizing gas.