The science and technology of ultracapacitors are reviewed for a number of electrode materials, including carbon, mixed metal oxides, and conducting polymers. More work has been done using microporous carbons than with the other materials and most of the commercially available devices use carbon electrodes and an organic electrolytes. The energy density of these devices is 3¯5 Wh/kg with a power density of 300¯500 W/kg for high efficiency (90¯95%) charge/discharges. Projections of future developments using carbon indicate that energy densities of 10 Wh/kg or higher are likely with power densities of 1¯2 kW/kg. A key problem in the fabrication of these advanced devices is the bonding of the thin electrodes to a current collector such the contact resistance is less than 0.1 cm2. Special attention is given in the paper to comparing the power density characteristics of ultracapacitors and batteries. The comparisons should be made at the same charge/discharge efficiency.

Ultracapacitors: Why, How, and Where is the Technology

Leu-M

Metal oxide-based resistive-type gas sensors are solid-state devices which are widely used in a number of applications from health and safety to energy efficiency and emission control. Nanomaterials such as nanowires, nanorods, and nanoparticles have dominated the research focus in this field due to their large number of surface sites facilitating surface reactions. Previous studies have shown that incorporating two or more metal oxides to form a heterojunction interface can have drastic effects on gas sensor performance, especially the selectivity. Recently, these effects have been amplified by designing heterojunctions on the nano-scale. These designs have evolved from mixed commercial powders and bi-layer films to finely-tuned core–shell and hierarchical brush-like nanocomposites. This review details the various morphological classes currently available for nanostructured metal-oxide based heterojunctions and then presents the dominant electronic and chemical mechanisms that influence the performance of these materials as resistive-type gas sensors. Mechanisms explored include p–n and n–n potential barrier manipulation, n–p–n response type inversions, spill-over effects, synergistic catalytic behavior, and microstructure enhancement. Tables are presented summarizing these works specifically for SnO2, ZnO, TiO2, In2O3, Fe2O3, MoO3, Co3O4, and CdO-based nanocomposites. Recent developments are highlighted and likely future trends are explored.

Nanoscale metal oxide-based heterojunctions for gas sensing: A review

Detection of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by metal oxide nanostructures-based gas sensors: A review

The alarming rise of indoor pollution and the need to combat the associated negative effects have promoted increasing attention in modernizing the chemical sensing technologies by newly designed materials with rich and tunable functionalities at atomic or molecular levels. With the appealing physical, chemical, optical, and electronic properties for various potential applications, the state-of-art gas-sensing nanomaterials and their future perspectives are well-documented and summarized in this paper. Specifically, the key performance attributes are addressed in detail such as the sensitivity, selectivity, reversibility, operating temperature, response time, and detection limit. As such, this review provides both critical insights in exploring and understanding various gas sensing nanomaterials and points out limitations and opportunities for further developments, such as morphology control, doping and surface alteration, atomic-scale characterization, and applications in different fields. Finally, the challenges and outlooks are discussed on the basis of the current developments.

S.S. Suryavanshi

Papers

Glycine combusted ZnFe2O4 gas sensor: Evaluation of structural, morphological and gas response properties

Oxalic acid induced hydrothermal synthesis of single crystalline tungsten oxide nanorods

Spinel MgFe 2 O 4 thick films: A colloidal approach for developing gas sensors

From nanowires to cubes of CdO: Ethanol gas response

Studies on the resistive response of nickel and cerium doped SnO2 thick films to acetone vapor