Thin Metal Films in Resistivity-based Chemical Sensing

Pavel      Podesva; Frantisek      Foret

Abstract

Thin metal layers are widely utilized in a number of modern applications in electronics, optics, chemistry and many other applications. At present the thin layers of metals serve in applications spanning from simple electrodes to surface plasmon resonance (SPR) or giant magnetoresistance (GMR) based sensors [1, 2]. Thin films allow monitoring redox processes in the vicinity of electrodes, adsorption/desorption equilibria of ions, organic compounds, gases, and more recently also interactions of large organic macromolecules such as proteins or DNA. In a previous review we have covered applications of thin films in biosensing regardless of the measured physical change [3]. Measurement of basic electric properties (current, voltage, resistance) is simple and precise with large dynamic range. Since the related equipment is simple and inexpensive; such sensors might be very attractive for many applications in chemistry, environmental sciences or medicine. In this work, we shall discuss the potential of metal layers for future applications in resistance based chemical sensing.

Keywords: Chemiresistor, thin metal film, voltohmmetric sensing, gas sensing.

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