Oriented nickel oxide fibers for use in gas sensitive sensors

Nitrogen dioxide causes great harm to the environment when it released into the atmospheric air. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor and determine the concentration of NO2 in the air with fast response gas sensors. In recent years, sensors based on semiconductor metal oxides have attracted ever-increasing attention. This interest is mainly related to their properties (magnetic, optical, electrical and catalytic). In this paper, we present a technique for obtaining oriented nickel oxide fibers for use as an active element in a nitrogen dioxide gas sensor. Obtaining oriented nickel oxide fibers was carried out by two-stage synthesis at a temperature of 70°C by reducing nickel chloride N𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖2 ∙ 6𝐻𝐻2𝑂𝑂 in an alkaline medium in the presence of a magnetic field. The process was followed by thermal oxidation in air. A silicon substrate was used as the basis of the active element. The appearance of oriented nickel oxide fibers was studied using a confocal microscope.