A New Thin-Film Piezoelectric Sensor for Easuring Methane Gas

To measure the concentration of CH4, we developed a thin film piezoelectric acoustic sensor (TFPAS), it accomplishes the detection of CH4 by the absorption of CH4 which can change the oscillation frequency of the piezoelectric crystal. The sensor is mainly composed by the piezoelectric film, sensitive film, silicon substrate and electrodes. The sensitive film is made up of nanometer-sized MgO scattered on pitch-based activated carbon fibers which has a strong adsorption of CH4. The piezoelectric film is a ZnO film which has very high piezoelectric characteristic parameters. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor to CH4 is very high. The response of the sensor to the presence of CH4 tested was found to be linear within a certain detection range and the detection error is less than 5%.