Inorganic nanowires for sensing applications

Nanowires are defined as wires with diameters of up to 100 nm and lengths of up to several millimeters. Their high surface-to-volume ratios provide them a high sensitivity to any external stimulus. In particular, the nanometric scale of the diameter enhances their sensitivity to the chemical surface state, which makes them appealing as building blocks for gas sensing. In a first part, we detail the fabrication of nanowires by bottom-up approaches with a special focus on the semi-conductor and metallic materials which are relevant for sensing. In a second part, we report the state-of-the-art in device fabrication with special emphasis on the nanowires-based gas sensors.