Abstract

This paper reviews the important problems associated with the synthesis of metal-oxide nanocomposites, charge transfer phenomena in these composites, their conductive and sensory properties, modeling of sensory effect and the role on this sensory effect of the electronic structure of the metal oxide. The size of metal particles and temperature significantly influence the efficiency of such systems. However, the electronic interactions between the different components of the nanocomposite films play the dominant role in the exploitation of the properties of such sensory systems. Depending on the chemical nature of the analyzed gas and the electronic structure of the semiconducting metal oxides, such interactions can result in either an increase or a decrease of the sensory effect. Thus, by varying the electronic structure of the metal oxide composite sensors as well as the temperature and size of the metal-oxide nanoparticles, the inherent characteristics of the sensor can be changed and tailored for detection of various gases. Such findings clearly open up new opportunities for development of novel selective sensors.

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