Ionization Gas Sensor Using Suspended Carbon Nanotube Beams

Sensors

Shivaram Arunachalam¹  Ricardo Izquierdo¹  Frederic Nabki¹ 

[1] Department of Electrical Engineering, École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada;

关键词: suspended;    carbon nanotubes;    ionization;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s20061660

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

An ionization sensor based on suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was presented. A suspended CNT beam was fabricated by a low-temperature surface micromachining process using SU8 photoresist as the sacrificial layer. Application of a bias to the CNT beam generated very high non-linear electric fields near the tips of individual CNTs sufficient to ionize target gas molecules and initiate a breakdown current. The sensing mechanism of the CNT ionization sensor was discussed. The sensor response was tested in air, nitrogen, argon, and helium ambients. Each gas demonstrated a unique breakdown signature. Further, the sensor was tested with gaseous mixtures. The sensor exhibited good long-term stability and had comparable performance to other reported CNT-based ionization sensors in literature, which use high-temperature vapor deposition methods to grow CNTs. The sensor notably allowed for lower ionization voltages due to its reduced ionization gap size.

【 授权许可】

Unknown