Thin film porous membranes for catalytic sensors

This paper reports on new and surprising experimental data for catalytic film gas sensing resistors coated with nanoporous sol-gel films to impart selectivity and durability to the sensor structure. This work is the result of attempts to build selectivity and reactivity to the surface of a sensor by modifying it with a series of sol-gel layers. The initial sol-gel SiO/sub 2/ layer applied to the sensor surprisingly showed enhanced O/sub 2/ interaction with H/sub 2/ and reduced susceptibility to poisons such as H/sub 2/S.