Room-temperature semiconductor gas sensor based on nonstoichiometric tungsten oxide nanorod film

Abstract

Porous tungsten oxide films were deposited onto a sensor substrate with a Si bulk-micromachined hotplate, by drop-coating isopropyl alcohol solution of highly crystalline tungsten oxide (WO2.72) nanorods with average 75nm length and 4nm diameter. The temperature-dependent gas sensing characteristics of the films have been investigated over the mild temperature range from 20to250°C. While the sensing responses for ammonia vapor showed increase in electrical conductivity at temperatures above 150°C as expected for n-type metal oxide sensors, they exhibited the opposite behavior of unusual conductivity decrease below 100°C. Superb sensing ability of the sensors at room temperature in conjunction with their anomalous conductivity behavior might be attributed to unique nanostructural features of very thin, nonstoichiometric WO2.72.