Background
A gas sensor is an instrument that detects the concentration of a gas. The instrument is suitable for dangerous places with combustible or toxic gas, and can continuously detect the content of the detected gas in the air within the lower explosion limit for a long time. The device can be widely applied to various industries with combustible or toxic gas, such as gas, petrochemical industry, metallurgy, steel, coking, electric power and the like, and is an ideal monitoring instrument for ensuring property and personal safety.
The semiconductor gas sensor is a gas sensor using a semiconductor gas sensitive element as a sensitive element, is the most common gas sensor, is widely applied to combustible gas leakage detection devices of families and factories, and is suitable for detection of methane, liquefied gas, hydrogen and the like.
Semiconductor gas sensors can be classified into surface control type and bulk control type according to whether the interaction between a semiconductor and a gas is in the surface or the interior of the sensor; according to the changing physical properties of semiconductors, the semiconductor device can be classified into a resistive type and a non-resistive type. The resistance type semiconductor gas sensor detects the composition or concentration of gas by using the change of resistance value when a semiconductor contacts the gas; the non-resistance type semiconductor gas sensor directly or indirectly detects gas by changing some characteristics of a semiconductor according to adsorption and reaction of the gas.
The gas sensor mainly has the following defects: the gas sensor has the factors of low sensitivity, poor selectivity, high power consumption, complex preparation process, high price and the like, and all the factors are related to the sensitive materials adopted by the gas sensor and the structure of the gas sensor.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides a noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor which comprises a substrate layer, wherein a semiconductor heterojunction is arranged above the substrate layer, a plurality of noble metal blocks arranged at intervals are arranged above the semiconductor heterojunction, and a first electrode and a second electrode which are arranged at intervals are arranged between the substrate layer and the semiconductor heterojunction.
The semiconductor heterojunction includes a semiconductor layer, a plurality of spaced apart semiconductor blocks disposed above the semiconductor layer.
The semiconductor blocks are arranged periodically.
The noble metal block is arranged above the semiconductor layer.
The noble metal blocks and the semiconductor blocks are arranged at intervals.
The semiconductor layer and the semiconductor block are made of different semiconductor materials.
The valence and conduction bands of the semiconductor layer are both higher than the valence and conduction bands of the semiconductor bulk.
The semiconductor layer is titanium dioxide (TiO) 2 ) The semiconductor block is made of tungsten disulfide.
The noble metal blocks are arranged periodically.
The noble metal block is wedge-shaped.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that: according to the noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor provided by the invention, the noble metal block is arranged above the semiconductor heterojunction, and surface plasmon resonance is initiated on the surface of the noble metal block through light incidence, so that a strong electric field is gathered on the surface of the noble metal block, and the strong electric field is favorable for combining free electrons in the semiconductor heterojunction with nearby oxygen molecules to become oxygen anions, so that the concentration of the free electrons in the semiconductor heterojunction is reduced, and the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction is increased violently; when the gas to be detected contacts the sensor, gas molecules react with more oxygen anions to generate more free electrons, and the free electrons return to the gas sensor, so that the concentration of the free electrons of the semiconductor heterojunction is increased violently, the resistance is reduced violently, and the detection of the gas molecules can be realized by detecting the change of the resistance; compared with the traditional measuring gas sensor, the gas sensor has the advantages of simple structure and high gas detection sensitivity.
The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Detailed Description
To further illustrate the technical means and effects of the present invention adopted to achieve the predetermined purposes, the following detailed description of the embodiments, structural features and effects of the present invention will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.
Example 1
The invention provides a noble metal enhancement type semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor as shown in fig. 1-4, which comprises a substrate layer 1 with supporting and protecting functions, wherein a semiconductor heterojunction 2 is arranged above the substrate layer 1, a plurality of noble metal blocks 7 arranged at intervals are arranged above the semiconductor heterojunction 2, a first electrode 3 and a second electrode 4 which are arranged at intervals are also arranged between the substrate layer 1 and the semiconductor heterojunction 2, and specifically, the first electrode 3 and the second electrode 4 are arranged above the substrate layer 1 and are positioned at two sides of the semiconductor heterojunction 2; the semiconductor heterojunction 2 comprises a semiconductor layer 5, a plurality of semiconductor blocks 6 arranged above the semiconductor layer 5 and spaced from each other, wherein the semiconductor layer 5 and the semiconductor blocks 6 are made of different semiconductor materials; the valence and conduction bands of semiconductor layer 5 are higher than the valence and conduction bands of semiconductor bulk 6, which facilitates the transfer of electrons in semiconductor layer 5 into semiconductor bulk 6, allowing more holes to accumulate in semiconductor layer 5, thereby causing more electron-hole separation, thereby increasing the resistance change of semiconductor heterojunction 2; in addition, the energy level of electrons in the semiconductor layer 5 is lower than the work function of the noble metal block 7, so that photo-generated electrons are transferred into the noble metal block 7, so that a Schottky junction is formed on the cross section of the semiconductor layer 5 and the noble metal block 7, and the recombination of electron holes in the transportation process is inhibited; in this way, the resistance variation of semiconductor heterojunction 2 can be further increased. Specifically, the noble metal block 7 is disposed above the semiconductor layer 5, and the noble metal block 7 and the semiconductor block 6 are arranged at an interval; the noble metal block 7 is higher than the semiconductor block 6. By means of vertical incidence of light (incidence from top to bottom in the direction of the attached drawing), surface plasmon resonance is initiated on the surface of the noble metal block 7, so that a strong electric field is gathered on the surface of the noble metal block 7, namely, the strong electric field is formed around the semiconductor block 6, the strong electric field is favorable for combining free electrons in the semiconductor heterojunction 2 with nearby oxygen molecules and changing the free electrons into oxygen anions, the concentration of the free electrons in the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is reduced, and the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased violently; when the gas to be detected is contacted with the sensor, gas molecules react with more oxygen anions to generate more free electrons, the free electrons return to the gas sensor, so that the concentration of the free electrons of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased violently, the resistance is reduced violently, the change of the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 can be detected through the electric connection of the first electrode 3 and the second electrode 4 with external detection equipment, and the detection of the gas molecules is realized.
Further, the semiconductor blocks 6 are arranged periodically.
Further, the noble metal blocks 7 are arranged periodically.
That is to say, the semiconductor blocks 6 and the noble metal blocks 7 are arranged at intervals and are arranged periodically, that is, the period of the semiconductor blocks 6 is the same as that of the noble metal blocks 7, so that the contact area between the semiconductor heterojunction 2 and the gas can be increased to the maximum extent, and the adsorption of more gas is facilitated, so that the resistance change of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 with the maximum resistance before and after the detection of the gas to be detected is caused, and the noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor has higher sensitivity.
Further, the semiconductor layer 5 is titanium dioxide TiO 2 Made of semiconductor block 6 of tungsten disulfide WS 2 And (4) preparing.
Further, as shown in fig. 2, the noble metal block 7 is wedge-shaped, so that a certain light gathering effect is achieved, when light enters, more light can be gathered on the semiconductor heterojunction 2, so that a strong electric field is formed around the semiconductor block 6, the strong electric field is beneficial to combining free electrons inside the semiconductor heterojunction 2 with nearby oxygen molecules to form oxygen anions, the concentration of the free electrons inside the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is reduced, and the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased dramatically; when the gas to be detected is contacted with the sensor, gas molecules react with more oxygen anions to generate more free electrons, the free electrons return to the gas sensor, so that the concentration of the free electrons of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased violently, the resistance is reduced violently, and the change of the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 can be detected through the electrical connection of the first electrode 3 and the second electrode 4 with external detection equipment, so that the detection of the gas molecules is realized.
Further, as shown in fig. 3, the noble metal block 7 is wedge-shaped, the semiconductor block 6 is also wedge-shaped, and the height of the noble metal block 7 is higher than that of the semiconductor block 6, so that light can be further collected on the semiconductor heterojunction 2, which is beneficial to forming a strong electric field around the semiconductor block 6, and the strong electric field is beneficial to combining free electrons inside the semiconductor heterojunction 2 with nearby oxygen molecules to become oxygen anions, so that the concentration of free electrons inside the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is reduced, and the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is greatly increased; when the gas to be detected contacts the sensor, gas molecules react with more oxygen anions to generate more free electrons, and the free electrons return to the gas sensor, so that the concentration of the free electrons of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased dramatically, the resistance is further reduced dramatically, and the change of the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 can be detected by electrically connecting the first electrode 3 and the second electrode 4 with external detection equipment, so that the detection of the gas molecules is realized, and the sensitivity and the accuracy of the noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor are further improved.
Further, as shown in fig. 4, the noble metal block 7 is wedge-shaped, the semiconductor block 6 is also wedge-shaped, and the graphene layer 8 is disposed above the noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor, the graphene layer 8 is made of graphene blocks, that is, graphene sheets, and is not an integral graphene film, so that the gas to be detected can be more gathered around the semiconductor block 6 and on the upper surface of the semiconductor layer 5, and when the graphene layer 8 strengthens plasmon resonance on the surface of the noble metal block 7, the relaxation time of electrons is increased, the electron lifetime is increased, more electron holes are separated, and before and after the gas to be detected is detected, the resistance change of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is larger, and the sensitivity is higher.
Further, the base layer 1 may be made of a material having a stable structure and good insulation, such as silicon dioxide.
Further, the noble metal block 7 can be made of noble metals such as Pt, ag, au, ru, and the like, so that the noble metal block 7 has a better catalytic effect on the semiconductor heterojunction 2, thereby better improving the sensitivity of the noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor.
In summary, in the noble metal enhanced semiconductor heterojunction gas sensor, the noble metal block 7 is arranged above the semiconductor heterojunction 2, and surface plasmon resonance is induced on the surface of the noble metal block 7 through light incidence, so that a strong electric field is gathered on the surface of the noble metal block 7, and the strong electric field is favorable for combining free electrons in the semiconductor heterojunction with nearby oxygen molecules to become oxygen anions, so that the concentration of the free electrons in the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is reduced, and the resistance of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased sharply; when the gas to be detected contacts the sensor, gas molecules react with more oxygen anions to generate more free electrons, and the free electrons return to the gas sensor, so that the concentration of the free electrons of the semiconductor heterojunction 2 is increased violently, the resistance is reduced violently, and the detection of the gas molecules can be realized by detecting the change of the resistance; compared with the traditional measuring gas sensor, the gas sensor has the advantages of simple structure and high gas detection sensitivity.
The foregoing is a more detailed description of the invention in connection with specific preferred embodiments and it is not intended that the invention be limited to these specific details. For those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, several simple deductions or substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and all shall be considered as belonging to the protection scope of the invention.