Environmental gas monitoring sensors

Abstract

A brief overview of gaseous environmental pollutants, emitting sources, sensing mechanisms of some solid state sensors and sensing of gases have been presented. Precise and accurate monitoring of pollutants is very important to prevent environmental hazards or accidents. Analytical and conventional instruments for monitoring gaseous pollutants are bulky, time consuming and expensive. Whereas, solid state gas sensors are compact, robust, inexpensive and monitoring continuously. Most of the solid state sensors work above room temperature to maintain the sensing activity as a result requires lot of power consumption. Minimization of power consumption during sensor operation is essential for practical sensors. Lot of efforts are put to minimize the power consumption by considering the several points such as miniaturization, new sensing materials, new techniques and sensing device morphology. Thick and thin films are suitable for miniaturized sensors with low power consumption and suitable for practical use.