Nanostructured perovskite based gas sensors for combustion processes development and environmental prevention

The need energy security and environment sustainability drives toward the development of energy technology in order to enhance the performance of internal combustion engines. Gas sensors play a key role for controlling the fuel oxygen ratio and monitoring the pollution emissions. Challenges in metal oxide gas sensor are focused on the fabrication of nanostructured materials because the reduction of crystallite size produces a significant increase in sensor performance due to the large specific surface areas, which increases the interaction between the sensor surface and the surrounding gases, the high porosity, which allows the gas target penetration inside the sensing layer, and the useful thickness of the depletion layer, which promote the detection of small resistance changes. Perovskite oxides, ABO3, in semiconductor-based gas sensors offer the opportunity to get new sensor materials with desirable sensitivity and selectivity by performing suitable substitution at the A-site and/or the B-site. In addition, their structural and morphological stability promote the durability and reliability of nanostructured gas sensors working at high temperature.