Highly sensitive impedance-based propene sensor using stabilized zirconia and zinc oxide sensing-electrode

Aimed at an environmental monitoring of hydrocarbons (HCs), a new-type impedancemetric sensor was fabricated by using an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) tube and ZnO sensing-electrode (SE). The fabricated tubular sensor was examined for detection of low concentrations of propene (C3H6) in the presence of 1.35 vol.% H2O and 400 ppm CO2 at 600 °C. As a result, it was found that the present sensor could detect the low concentrations of C3H6 in the range of 0.05–0.8 ppm and the sensitivity varied linearly with C3H6 concentration. In addition, the C3H6 sensitivity was almost invariant with the changes in the concentration of water vapor and the interferences to other gases, such as NO2, NO, H2, CO and CH4, were insignificant.