Sensitivity Enhancement of Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene Gas Sensors using Nanostructured TiO2: a Mini-Review

초록

Benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) are hazardous volatile organic compounds commonly found in industrial andenvironmental settings, requiring the development of highly sensitive and selective gas sensors to ensure public safety. Nanostructuredtitanium dioxide (TiO2) has emerged as a promising BTX-sensing material due to its high chemical stability, advantageouscatalytic properties, and tunable electronic structure. However, material modification is required because of the limited gas sensitivityof pristine TiO2. This review discusses key strategies for enhancing the BTX-sensing performance of TiO2-based gas sensors, includingnanostructuring, metal doping, metal and metal oxide decoration, thermal treatment, and organic functionalization. Theseapproaches improve gas adsorption, charge-carrier mobility, and reaction kinetics, thus enhancing the response and selectivity of theresulting sensor. The integration of TiO2 sensors with microheater platforms also enables low-power operation for practical deployment. This review highlights current challenges facing the development of TiO2-based gas sensors, including sensor stability, crosssensitivity,and real-time monitoring while proposing future directions for these devices.

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