Though considerable progress has been achieved on gas molecule recognition by electronic nose (e-nose) comprised of nonselective (metal oxide) semiconductor chemiresistors, extracting adequate molecular features within short time (<1 s) remains a big obstacle, which hinders the emerging e-nose applications in lethal or explosive gas warning. Herein, by virtue of the ultrafast (∼20 μs) thermal relaxation time of self-heated WO3-based chemiresistors fabricated via oblique angle deposition, instead of external heating, self-heating temperature modulation has been proposed to generate sufficient electrical response features. Accurate discrimination of 12 gases (including 3 xylene isomers with the same function group and molecular weight) has been readily achieved within 0.5-1 s, which is one order faster than the state-of-the-art e-noses. A smart wireless e-nose, capable of instantaneously discriminating target gas in ambient air background, has been developed, paving the way for the practical applications of e-nose in the area of homeland security and public health.
Keywords: nanocolumnar WO3 chemiresistor; oblique angle deposition; prompt molecule recognition; self-heating temperature modulation; transient feature.