Experimental Artifacts for Morphological Tweaking of Chemical Sensor Materials Studies on ZnO.docVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 8259-8277; doi:10.3390/s120608259 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Experimental Artifacts for Morphological Tweaking of Chemical Sensor Materials: Studies on ZnO Ikram Ul Haq 1,* and Abdul-Majeed Azad 2 1 National Center of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St., Toledo, OH 43606, USA; E-Mail: abdul-majeed.azad@ * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: ikramhq@; Tel.: +92-91-9216766. Received: 2 May 2012; in revised form: 29 May 2012 / Accepted: 6 June 2012 / Published: 13 June 2012 Abstract: Sensing mechanisms of gases on solid structures are predominantly surface- dominated. Benign surface features in terms of small grain size, high aspect ratio, large surface area and open and connected porosity, are required to realize a successful sensor material. Such morphological artifacts are a function of the fabrication and processing techniques employed. In this paper, we describe the fabrication of monoshaped and monosized zinc oxide (ZnO) particles by a homogeneous precipitation method, using urea and/or hexmethyltetraamine as the reductant. The effect of operating conditions and experimental variables, such as the relative concentration of the precursors, temperature, and the aging time on the morphology of the resulting particles was studied systematically. These experimental parameters were optimized in order to achieve particles of uniform morphology and of narrow size distribution. Some of these particles were employed for the detection of ammonia gas at room temperature. Keywords: homogeneous precipitation; urea; hexamethyltetraamine; monosized particles; monodispersion; zinc oxide; gas sensor  Sensors 2012, 12 8260 1. Introduction One aspect of current interest and great