Photoactivation by UV and visible radiation is a promising approach for the development of semiconductor gas sensors with reduced power consumption, high sensitivity, and stability. Although many hopeful results were achieved in this direction, the theoretical basis for the processes responsible for the photoactivated gas sensitivity still needs to be clarified. In this work, we investigated the mechanisms of UV-activated processes on the surface of nanocrystalline ZnO, In2O3, and SnO2 by in situ mass spectrometry and compared the obtained results with the gas sensitivity to oxygen in the dark and at UV irradiation. The results revealed a correlation between the photoactivated oxygen isotopic exchange activity and UV-activated oxygen gas sensitivity of the studied metal oxides. To interpret the data obtained, a model was proposed based on the idea of the generation of additional oxygen vacancies under UV irradiation due to the interaction with photoexcited holes.
Keywords: gas sensor; mass spectrometry; metal oxides; nanomaterials; photoactivation.