Oxygen detection using nanostructured TiO2 thin films obtained by the molecular layering method

Using the molecular layering method (ML), nanostructured TiO₂ films have been synthesized that are promising for detecting oxygen over a wide range of concentrations at low operating temperatures of 150-300 °C. It has been shown that an anatase thin film is formed; the particle size is 34.9 ± 3.1 nm. It has been established that it enables the highly responsive detection of oxygen (R_O2/R_Ar up to 26.6 at a temperature of 200 °C and O₂ content of 10%). The influence of operating temperature on the response values, and response and recovery time, have been studied. It has been shown that response magnitude slightly depends on humidity, but at 100% humidity response time and signal recovery time increase significantly. A sufficiently high degree of selectivity has been found when detecting oxygen, in comparison with other analyte gases (CO, H₂, CH₄ and CO₂).