Nanoscale Polymorphic Oxides for Selective Chemosensors

Transition metal oxides are key sensing elements of resistive type chemical detectors. A given oxide may be found in several polymorph phases, each having a distinct structural configuration. Gas-oxide interactions are strongly dependent on the structure sensitivity of the polymorph used in sensing. This paper reviews the effect of polymorphism on the gas specificity, the importance of nanoscale processing for stabilizing the desirable oxide phases, and it introduces a gas-polymorph selection library for building the next generation of gas sensing systems with inherent selectivity.