1. Introduction
Carbon monoxide (CO) sensors are essential to the control of
emissions from combustion processes. More precise control of the
air/fuel ratio in a combustion processes can yield significant gains in
efficiency and results in substantial savings in fuel consumption. In
addition, the toxic nature of COnecessitates the detection of this gas
for household and environmental applications. Metal oxide semiconductors
have been employed in the detection of CO. One of the
advantages of these materials is that they enable high temperature
operation, making them unique for hostile industrial applications.
Moreover, many gas reactions are plausible only at such elevated
temperatures. The basic property of metal oxides that is of interest
in gas-sensing applications is the dependence of their electrical
conductivity on the ambient gas. Most metal oxide semiconductors
are naturally of n-type conductivity due to the presence of a large
number of oxygen vacancies. When such a material is exposed to
the atmosphere, oxygen molecules are chemisorbed to the grain
boundaries and pick up electrons from the conduction band and
create a space charge layer between the grains [1]. This leads to
the formation of Schottky barriers at the surfaces of the grains, and
increases the resistivity of the material [2]. Exposure of the mate-rial to reducing gases (such as carbon monoxide) causes a reaction
of these gases with the chemisorbed oxygen, increasing the electronic
conduction and reducing the resistance [1,2]. The sensing
properties are based on surface reactions and are greatly affected
by the microstructure of the material [3]. Metal oxide semiconductor
sensors have been used both as bulk and thin films. Thin
films offer the added advantage of higher surface-to-volume ratio.
In addition to the choice of the semiconducting oxide, other film
parameters that are widely known to affect the sensing properties
of a thin film are surface roughness, stoichiometry, and porosity.
Furthermore, depending on the preparation technique of the sensing
layers, large differences of behavior concerning gas response
and selectivity were observed.