Development of nanophosphors and thin films for optical gas sensing


The project deals development of advanced chemical gas sensors that exhibit strongly enhanced sensitivity, selectivity and response time. The sensors are based on lanthanide doped nanostructured oxide sensitive layers (eg. SnO2, TiO2, ZnO in the form of thin films, nanograins "zero-dimensional object" or nanowires "one-dimensional object"). Optical detection will be implemented. The nanostructuring allows substituting the effect of the metallic catalyst. The sensor design will enable to decrease power consumption required to operate the sensor. General consequences among morphology of oxidic sensitive layer ↔ mechanism of detection of given class of analyte ↔ sensitivity of the sensor will be formulated. These studies (accompanied by optimization of the deposition technology) will enable to suggest appropriate generalized principles (or findings), which should be followed when designing the next generations of chemical gas sensors with luminescent nanostructured sensitive layers.