Size effects in the CO sensing properties of nanostructured TiO2 thin films fabricated by colloidal templating

• Published in: Electronic materials letters Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 31 - 34
• Main Authors: Moon, Hi Gyu, Jang, Ho Won, Kim, Jin-Sang, Park, Hyung-Ho, Yoon, Seok-Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2010; 대한금속·재료학회
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Materials Science; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Optical and Electronic Materials; 전자/정보통신공학; thin film gas sensors; size effects; TiO; large-scale uniformity; nanostructured; colloidal templating
• ISSN: 1738-8090; 2093-6788
• DOI: 10.3365/eml.2010.03.031

This study investigates the CO sensing properties of nanostructured TiO 2 thin film gas sensors fabricated with colloidal templates using different sizes of polymer spheres. Compared to plain films, the nanostructured films show enhanced gas sensing in the form of greater sensitivity and a faster response. More interestingly, the use of colloidal templates with smaller spheres (300 nm in diameter) leads to close-packed nanostructured TiO 2 thin films with very large-scale uniformity and a more pronounced improvement in CO sensing compared to the use of larger spheres (1 μm in diameter). This result suggests that an understanding of the sphere size effects on the gas sensing properties of nanostructured TiO 2 thin films created by colloidal templating is important in the development of these films for actual applications.