Design of Metal Oxide Hollow Structures Using Soft-templating Method for High-Performance Gas Sensors

Semiconductor gas sensors based on metal oxide are widely used in a number of applications, from health and safety to energy efficiency and emission control. Nanomaterials including nanowires, nanorods, and nanoparticles have dominated the research focus in this field owing to their large number of surface sites that facilitate surface reactions. Recently, metal oxide hollow structures using soft templates have been developed owing to their high sensing properties with large-area uniformity. Here, we provide a brief overview of metal oxide hollow structures and their gas-sensing properties from the aspects of template size, morphology, and additives. In addition, a gas-sensing mechanism and perspectives are presented.