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Room temperature CO sensing using a hybrid (Ta2O5–SnO2) : PANI composite material.

In the present work, the superior performance of nanostructured Ta 2 O 5 -SnO 2 nanocomposite homo-junction was demonstrated for the detection of CO gas at low concentration (5-10 ppm) and low operating temperature (50 °C). The gas sensing performance of this material is comparable to the state of the art materials reported to date in the literature. In addition, the material exhibits high selectivity to CO gas over other interfering gases such as CO 2 , H 2 , CH 4 , NO 2 , and SO 2 etc. The sensing performance of the composite was significantly higher than its individual oxides. The composite is robust and shows good reproducibility and chemical stability with low response and recovery time. The strategy employed herein to create homo-junction nanocomposites of semiconducting metal oxides significantly improved the sensitivity and selectivity to CO gas closer to room temperature and thus could pave the way for the development of efficient homo-junction nanocomposites for gas sensing applications.