CuO catalytic membrane as selectivity trimmer for metal oxide gas sensors

Gas sensors based on semiconducting metal oxides were coated with catalytic membranes to improve the selectivity of gas detection. CuO was used to est ablish a catalytic membrane to develop an active gas filter. The coated gas sensors were tested for their gas-detecting properties by exposure to mode l gas atmospheres. The catalytic effect of the membranes was examined by an alyzing the composition of the gas atmosphere with an FT-IR spectrometer du ring exposure. To test the discrimination power, eight sensors with and wit hout coating were combined in an array which was exposed to a mixture of tw o gases. A good selectivity was demonstrated using principal component anal ysis (PCA). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.