碳纳米管气体传感器研究进展

Progress in Carbon Nanotube Gas Sensor Research

碳纳米管具有一维纳米结构、高表面吸附能力、良好的导电性和电子弹道传输特性等优异的力学、电学、物理和化学性能,成为制作纳米气体传感器的理想材料之一.近年来,各国研究者广泛开展了碳纳米管气体传感器的研究工作,并取得了许多显著成果.研究结果表明,碳纳米管气体传感器具有灵敏度高、响应速度快、尺寸小、能耗低和室温下工作等诸多特点.本文结合本研究小组近年来在碳纳米管气体传感器领域所做的大量研究工作,从环境监测、医学检测和国防军事等方面,对碳纳米管气体传感器取得的研究进展进行了综述,同时也阐述和分析了碳纳米管气体传感器的工作原理和制作过程.尽管面临诸多挑战,随着研究的不断深入,碳纳米管气体传感器仍有可能凭借其独特的性能优势成为当前商业应用气体传感器的有力竞争者.

Carbon nanotubes have become ideal candidates for fabricating nanosized gas sensors because of their excellent mechanical, electrical, physical, and chemical properties, one dimensional nanostructure, high surface adsorption capability, superior conductive performance, and electronic ballistic transport characteristics. Recently, a great deal of effort has been devoted to the development of carbon nanotube based gas sensors and rapid progress has been made. The results show that carbon nanotube gas sensors possess unique properties such as high sensitivity, fast response, small size, low energy consumption, and low operating temperature. In this review, we combine the great deal of work carried out by our group and try to summarize research progress in carbon nanotube based gas sensors for environmental monitoring, medical diagnosis, and military and defense applications. The working mechanisms and manufacturing processes of these sensors are also presented and analyzed. Despite facing enormous challenges, owing to their excellent performance, sensors based on carbon nanotubes will be substitutes for commercially traditional gas sensors.