Tin-oxide-nanowire-based electronic nose using heterogeneous catalysis as a functionalization strategy

An electronic nose (e-nose) strategy is described based on SnO₂ nanowire arrays whose sensing properties are modified by changing their operating temperatures and by decorating some of the nanowires with metallic nanoparticles. Since the catalytic processes occurring on the metal nanoparticles depend on the identity of the metal, decorating the semiconducting nanowires with various metal nanoparticles is akin to functionalizing them with chemically specific moieties. Other than the synthesis of the nanowires, all other steps in the fabrication of the e-nose sensors were carried out using top-down microfabrication processes, paving the way to a useful strategy for making low cost, nanowire-based e-nose chips. The sensors were tested for their ability to distinguish three reducing gases (H₂, CO, and ethylene), which they were able to do unequivocally when the data was classified using linear discriminant analysis. The discriminating ability of this e-nose design was not impacted by the lengths or diameters of the nanowires used.