Gas Sensing Response in Nanostructured CoAl2O4 Spinel Prepared by Soft-Chemistry Methods.

Semiconductor transition metal oxides are suitable materials for environmental gas sensing applications due to their gas sensitivity, crystal structure stability and reproducibility in gas detection [1]. On the other hand, the chemical activity and electrical conductivity in these materials may be enhanced when their average particle size is reduced into the nanometer scale [2]. Nanoporosity and good connectivity between nanoparticles also play an important role in this application by increasing the specific surface area, and facilitating the electrical conduction respectively [3, 4].