| Nanocrystalline ceramic materials (semiconducting oxides, SiC, GaN, CNT), due to their excessive surface to
volume ratio and large free surface energy, are one of the key focus domains for researchers in the field of
chemicals sensors during the last decade. Owing to the nanocrystallinity, several promising effects on sensor
parameters like operating temperature, response magnitude (S), response, recovery time and
selectivity have been studied. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current research activities
that concentrate on chemical sensors based on nanocrystalline-nanoporous thin films along with the thin films
consisting of nanotubes, nanorods, nanobelts, nanoribbons and nanowires, comprising the wide bandgap
semiconducting oxides (like SnO2 , ZnO, TiO2 , In2 O3 etc) and other ceramic materials like SiC, GaN, CNT. The
review also predictcs about the possible directions towards future research on nanostructured chemical sensors. |
