Light-activated room-temperature gas sensors based on metal oxide nanostructures: A review on recent advances

Sensor technology has an important effect on many aspects in our society, and has gained much progress, propelled by the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Current research efforts are directed toward developing high-performance gas sensors with low operating temperature at low fabrication costs. A gas sensor working at room temperature is very appealing as it provides very low power consumption and does not require a heater for high-temperature operation, and hence simplifies the fabrication of sensor devices and reduces the operating cost. Nanostructured materials are at the core of the development of any room-temperature sensing platform. The most important advances with regard to fundamental research, sensing mechanisms, and application of nanostructured materials for room-temperature conductometric sensor devices are reviewed here. Particular emphasis is given to the relation between the nanostructure and sensor properties in an attempt to address structure-property correlations. Finally, some future research perspectives and new challenges that the field of room-temperature sensors will have to address are also discussed.