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Nowadays 2D materials like MXenes, TMDs and carbon-based materials dominate publications in field of sensors for environment, medicine or agriculture. Indeed, their specific surface and electrical properties fit the requirements for sensor elements, but commercial solutions and industrial demands require mandatory something only metal oxides offer in this moment. That is environmental stability and more important, low price, otherwise market and everyday users would not be able to accept such innovations. Metal oxides are by nature, due to their chemistry, stable on room temperature in almost all conditions, which on the other hand require high temperatures for their processing. Usual suspects for such applications are SnO2, ZnO and TiO2, in pure or composite from (with metallic nanoparticles or 2D materials), heavily dependent of microstructure/grain size and particle shape (plates, rods, flowers…) which is controlled by the fabrication process. What is more, they are used in gas sensing devices at elevated temperatures (200-300 °C) due to their better sensitivity. Stability of metal oxides is important from the fact that other solutions (especially optical and electrochemical) require more frequent calibration, which can increase the investment and time of the user, as well as require additional training or specialized personnel. Metal oxides in sensing solution usually bridge that gap and take place after electrochemical and optical solution due to their remarkable stability, making them irreplaceable.

Taking advantage of large-scale production, soil remediation by metal oxides at this point is the only economically viable method without using other chemicals that can disbalance soil microbiome or bring any major harm to plant growth, simply because they are part of the soil to begin with. In that sense, metal oxides gain much more importance due to rapidly growing soil health concerns all over the world. In this case oxides such are Fe₂O₃, MnO₂, Al₂O₃, TiO₂, and other, can adsorb or stabilize heavy metals, organic pollutants and other harmful anions, modify pH of the soil, oxidize harmful compounds or change ionic state of heavy metals, photocatalytically degrade pesticides and even enhance microbial activity in the soil. Everything about such applications is related to particle size, microstructure and methods to produce them in large scale maintaining the same quality and performance.

This is just tip of the iceberg where oxide ceramic is irreplaceable, due to mechanical properties of nanograined tough ceramics that can withstand ware damage in extreme conditions, or mixed oxides and high electrical capacitance in passive electronic components such as capacitors, memory or RF components, making them evergreen in materials world.   

Dr Branimir Bajac

Affiliation:
BioSense, Research and Development Institute for IT in biosystems

Country:
Serbia

E-mail:
branimir.bajac@biosense.rs

LinkedIn Profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/branimir-bajac-b2949683/