Detection of Ethanol Vapours Using Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Catalytic Pellet by Conventional and Modified Sol Gel Dip-Coating Method

The present investigation deals with the development of ethanol-vapour-sensing materials coated with the semiconducting oxide TiO2. Thick films of anatase TiO2 were deposited using the sol-gel dip-coating technique on alumina substrates by conventional alkoxide sol and modified sol added with Degussa P-25 as the sensing medium. It was shown that crystallised TiO2 anatase was obtained at the annealing temperature of 500°C. The fabricated TiO2 sensors exhibited highest sensitivity at the sensing temperature of 350 °C. Sensitivity towards the ethanol vapour was further increased with UV light effect. The enhancement of the sensitivity of the modified catalytic pellet can be explained by the crystallite of anatase TiO2 and the effect of the photocatalytic of TiO2. The high sensitivity of the TiO2 film deposited with modified sol revealed that the modified sol could be a new alternative in the development of a TiO2 ethanol sensor.