A simulation study of silver nanowire for water and ethane vapor sensing

Abstract

Purpose

Nanowires, nanostructures with the diameter of the order of a nanometer, have recently attracted as gas sensors because of their interesting properties such as high sensitivity, fast response and high selectivity and stability. Among the different types of gas sensors, metallic nanowires used in high frequency applications because of their long mean free path that make the conduction ballistic.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents the results of simulations to find the effects of adsorbing some molecules by silver Ag nanowires. The mechanisms of the simulated gas sensor are implemented in the Atomistix Toolkit 13.2 (ATK 13.2).

Findings

The simulation results show high sensitivity of silver nanowires in adjacent with water and ethane. The resistance of the simulated nanowire increased to about 3.65 kΩ for ethane and 4.95 kΩ for water molecules. This result shows that the sensitivity of a silver nanowire is about triple for the case of adsorbing water in comparison to the adsorption of ethane molecules.

Originality/value

This paper presents a simulation study on silver nanowires and compares their sensitivities in adjacent with water and ethane molecules.

Citation

Refaat, M. and Moslemi, M.R. (2016), "A simulation study of silver nanowire for water and ethane vapor sensing", Microelectronics International, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 73-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/MI-03-2015-0024