Current Understanding of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Doped and Loaded Semiconducting Metal-Oxide-Based Gas Sensing Materials

Introducing additives in semiconducting metal oxides includes, besides the use of filters, dynamic operation procedures and chemometric approaches, the most common way of tuning the sensitivity, selectivity, and stability of chemoresitsive gas sensors. For the vast majority of commercially used gas sensing materials, the introduction of additives is essential and is one of the longest lasting topics in gas sensor research. This Review discusses the different chemical and electrical sensitization mechanisms of additives as well as the role of different structures. Based on state-of-the-art experimental findings, this Review revises and updates the concepts that are used to explain the mechanisms through which the additives influence the performance of typical gas sensing materials, i.e., oxide nanoparticles arranged in a porous layer. The first sections classify the different additive structures, namely, doped or loaded oxides as well as mixtures of oxides, and describe the basic working principle of pristine semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors. The subsequent sections discuss different chemical and/or electrical contributions to the sensitization by additive structures, their mutual influence on each other, and the way they impact the sensing properties. The presented concepts and models are essential for understanding the complex role of additives and provide the basis for a knowledge-based design of gas sensors based on semiconducting metal oxide nanoparticles, which is outlined in a separate section.