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Semiconducting Metal Oxides for Gas Sensing pp 23–51Cite as

Sensing Mechanism and Evaluation Criteria of Semiconducting Metal Oxides Gas Sensors

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Abstract

Analogue to other sensing system, semiconductor metal oxide (SMO) sensing systems have their own working principle or sensing mechanism evaluation criteria about sensing performance. In this chapter, for the single-component metal oxide gas sensing mechanism, including n-type semiconductors and p-type semiconductors, the effects of surface-adsorbed oxygen and depletion layer width on resistance change are discussed; for metal oxide complexes, including n–n junction, p–p junction and p–n junction, the transition of charge between different materials are analyzed; for heteroatom-doped metal oxides, the defects introduced by heteroatoms and its influence on the electronic structure of host materials are discussed; for catalyst-decorated metal oxide, electronic sensitization and chemical sensitization of catalyst are analyzed and illustrated. Finally, the effect of metal oxide grain size on gas sensing properties was summarized. Based on the metal oxide resistive gas sensing mechanism, the evaluation criteria of gas sensing performance are summarized, including sensitivity, operating temperature, selectivity, stability and response–recovery time.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Yonghui Deng

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Deng, Y. (2019). Sensing Mechanism and Evaluation Criteria of Semiconducting Metal Oxides Gas Sensors. In: Semiconducting Metal Oxides for Gas Sensing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5853-1_2

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