One-Dimensional Metal Oxide Nanostructures for Chemical Sensors

Abstract

The fabrication of chemical sensors based on one-dimensional (1D) metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) nanostructures with tailored geometries has rapidly advanced in the last two decades. Chemical sensitive 1D MOS nanostructures are usually configured as resistors whose conduction is altered by a charge-transfer process or as field-effect transistors (FET) whose properties are controlled by applying appropriate potentials to the gate. This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art research on chemical sensors based on 1D MOS nanostructures of the resistive and FET types. The chapter begins with a survey of the MOS and their 1D nanostructures with the greatest potential for use in the next generation of chemical sensors, which will be of very small size, low-power consumption, low-cost, and superior sensing performance compared to present chemical sensors on the market. There follows a description of the 1D MOS nanostructures, including composite and hybrid structures, and their synthesis techniques. And subsequently a presentation of the architectures of the current resistive and FET sensors, and the methods to integrate the 1D MOS nanostructures into them on a large scale and in a cost-effective manner. The chapter concludes with an outlook of the challenges facing the chemical sensors based on 1D MOS nanostructures if their massive use in sensor networks becomes a reality.