Metal Oxide Semiconductor Sensors for Triethylamine Detection: Sensing Performance and Improvements

Triethylamine (TEA) is an organic compound that is commonly used in industries, but its volatile, inflammable, corrosive, and toxic nature leads to explosions and tissue damage. A sensitive, accurate, and in situ monitoring of TEA is of great significance to production safety and human health. Metal oxide semiconductors (MOSs) are widely used as gas sensors for volatile organic compounds due to their high bandgap and unique microstructure. This review aims to provide insights into the further development of MOSs by generalizing existing MOSs for TEA detection and measures to improve their sensing performance. This review starts by proposing the basic gas-sensing characteristics of the sensor and two typical TEA sensing mechanisms. Then, recent developments to improve the sensing performance of TEA sensors are summarized from different aspects, such as the optimization of material morphology, the incorporation of other materials (metal elements, conducting polymers, etc.), the development of new materials (graphene, TMDs, etc.), the application of advanced fabrication devices, and the introduction of external stimulation. Finally, this review concludes with prospects for using the aforementioned methods in the fabrication of high-performance TEA gas sensors, as well as highlighting the significance and research challenges in this emerging field.