Sensor synthesis methods depositing thin films

The next three chapters (Chapters 9-11) focus on the deposition of nano-structured or microstructured films and entities. Porous oxide thin films are, for example, of great interest due to potential application of these films as low-K dielectrics and in sensors, selective membranes, and photovoltaic applications. One of the key challenges in this area is the problem of controlling, ordering, and combining pore structure over different length scales. Chapter 9 provides an introduction and discussion of evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA), a method that combines sol-gel synthesis with self-assembly and phase separation to produce films with a tailored pore structure. Chapter 10 describes how nanomaterials can be used as soluble precursors for the preparation of extended... 

It should be noted that the second and the third approaches assume a subsequent high-temperature treatment which will reduce the effectiveness of the methods and limit their application. It is obvious that the third approach cannot be used with thin-film technology this approach is limited mainly to ceramics, for which high-temperature annealing is one of the usual steps in the manufacture of chemical sensors. The second and third approaches also assume that at least one of the components participating in solid-phase reactions has sufficient mobility at the annealing temperatures used. Regarding the first approach, for its realization, one could use all methods of synthesis and deposition, as described in Korotcenkov and Cho (2010). However, the most effective for this approach are sol-gel synthesis processes and aerosol-phase deposition methods. 

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