Nano-Composite Metal Oxides for Electronic Noses

This program aims at producing the next generation of molecular chemical and biological sensors [1]. Is is an interdisciplinary effort to manufacture electronic "noses" from arrays of nanostructured metal oxide sensors, each of which is specific to a given gas. Specificity in nanostructured oxides is achieved by exploiting their structure sensitivity. The ongoing research focuses on the study of formation mechanisms of the nanostructured sensing probes, on testing their structural and mechanical stability, and on assessing their bio-detection capabilities. New tools for measuring the properties of nanostructured materials are being developed in this program. Collaborations with the Gas Sensor Laboratory at the University of Brescia (Italy) and the Ceramics Laboratory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary) have been developed as part of this work.