Materials for Capacitance-Based Gas Sensors

Microhotplates, however, are not only used for metal-oxide-based gas sensor applications. In all cases, in which elevated temperatures are required, or thermal decoupling from the bulk substrate is necessary, microhotplate-like structures can be used with various materials and detector configurations [25]. Examples include polymer-based capacitive sensors [26], pellistors [27-29], GasFETs [30,31], sensors based on changes in thermal conductivity [32], or devices that rely on metal films [33,34]. Only microhotplates for chemoresistive metal-oxide materials will be further detailed here. The relevant design considerations will be addressed. 

Kinkeldei et al. (2012) also compared different polymeric substrates such as PEN, PI, PPS, and PEI (see Table 7.6), and concluded that the selection of polymer for gas sensor platform depends on the working principle of the sensor designed, hi the case of metal oxide-based gas sensors, the substrate has to be heated during operation of the sensors. This requires temperatures above the melting point of PET/PEN and PPS. This means that these materials are unacceptable for application in metal oxide chemiresistors. In the case of capacitive sensors, the substrate material should be inert against... 

In particular, Connolly et al. (2005) designed NH capacitive sensor with 500-nm-thick porous SiC film. The response in humidity was very low for RH<50 %, which was attributed to the porous dimensions. The exact sensing mechanism is still not clear, but NH levels as low as-0.5 ppm were detected. Porous alumina (AI2O3) has also been examined as a sensing material for capacitive gas sensors and in particular for humidity measurements (Nahar and Khanna 1982 Timar-Horvath et al. 2008). The Al Og-based humidity sensor was a volume-effect device based on physical adsorption. At low humidity, the walls of the pores are lined with one-molecular-thickness liquid layer. As the humidity increases, after saturating the walls, due to a capillary condensation effect, the water starts condensing in the pores (Boucher 1976 Neimark and Ravikovitch 2001). It was established that the water molecules, even at a partial pressure higher than the saturated vapor pressure tend to condense in capillary pores with a radius below the Kelvin radius r, which is defined as function (1) (Boucher 1976) ... 

In particular, Alberti et al. (1991) proposed zeolite-based sensors for detection of hydrocarbons such as butane and Balkus et al. (1997) used thin film aluminophosphate (AlPO)-5 molecular sieve as the dielectric phase in a capacitance-type chemical sensor for CO and CO. AlPO-n is a family of phosphorus molecular sieves which, similar to zeolites, have ordered molecular-sized pores. The AlPO-5 structure used for the dielectric layer consists of four- and six-membered rings of alternating phosphate and aluminum ions bridged by oxygen. These rings are arranged to produce one-dimensional channels 0.73 nm in diameter. The properties of AlPO-n are reviewed in detail by Ishihara and Takita (1996), and one of the attractive properties of these materials is their heat stability. The properties of zeolites as they relate to zeolite-based gas sensors are discussed in a special section in Vol. 2. 

We need to say that insulating polymers, in which all four valence electrons of carbon are used up in covalent bonds, can also be applied in gas sensor design. Moreover, experiment has shown that, for several types of gas sensors such as capacitive sensors (see Chip. 16 [Vol. 1]) and resistive sensors based on composite materials (Chap. 13 [Vol. 2]), the application of insulating polymers is actually preferable. 

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