Highly sensitive methane catalytic combustion micro-sensor based on mesoporous structure and nano-catalyst.

In order to get a methane catalytic combustion micro-sensor, two different catalytic systems used in traditional methane catalytic combustion sensors were fabricated into a mesoporous structure and their catalytic activities were investigated. In comparison, the Rh2O3-Al2O3 system can form more a uniform mesoporous structure and has a much higher specific surface area. Even more importantly, it has relatively higher catalytic activity and stability for the methane catalytic combustion reaction. After being coated on a microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) micro-heater, a catalytic combustion type methane micro-sensor was fabricated. The meso-structured Rh2O3-Al2O3 hybrid based MEMS sensor demonstrated a short T90 response time, relatively high signal output, high enough signal/noise ratio for practical detecting and strong anti-poison properties.