GAS SENSING PROPERTIES OF ZINC/ZINC OXIDE NANOFIBERS: DETECTION OF NO2 AT SUB-PPM CONCENTRATIONS

Zinc oxide has attracted recently the attention of several investigators for the wide range of possible technological applications, such as solar cells, acoustic wave devices, photoluminescence phosphor for panel display. Several methods for the deposition of ZnO films (spray pyrolysis, laser ablation, arc discharge, sol-gel processes) have been proposed in the scientific literature of 1990s (see f.i. Studenikin et al., 1998). Synthesis of zinc monoxide nanobelts by an evaporation method has been also recently reported (Pan et al., 2001). In this communication we describe some results on nanocrystalline zinc/zinc oxide fibers fabricated by an aerosol route and tested for gas sensing of nitrogen dioxide in very low concentrations (sub-ppm). The extensive description of such a study is reported elsewhere (di Stasio et al., 2003).