Study on nanosized zircon powder based dual sensitive sensor

Study on the nanosized ceramic material of ZrO2 which has usually been used as electronic ceramics, function ceramics, structure ceramics and so on. The material of ZrO2 was made by low-temperature super alkaline condition. The powder was detected by XRD, and the result showed that the material was pure ZrO2. According to the Scherer formula computation, the ZrO2 average grain diameter was about 21 nm. The material was sensitive both to the ammonia and to the humidity. Full performance test was carried to the sensor made by the sensitive material. To 20 × 10−6 NH3, the sensitive is 3, and to 1000 × 10−6 NH3, the sensitive is 12.5. The sensor has good selectivity, and has almost no sensitive to else gases, so it is a good gas sensor with excellent selectivity. To 1000 × 10−6 NH3, the response time is 2 s, and recovering time is also only 27 s. The sensitive range of humidity is 25-98%RH under 25 °C. Both response and recovered time of humidity are less than 30s. The sensor realized the dual sensitive.