3D printed CuO semiconducting gas sensor for ammonia detection at room temperature

In this work, a new room-temperature ammonia gas sensor based on n-type copper oxide (CuO) semiconductor was fabricated by 3D printing with fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique and sintering method. The polylactic acid (PLA) was blended together with Cu particles and extruded into the filament form for FDM printing. The PLA/Cu composite was printed and calcined in a furnace to obtain semiconducting CuO. The structural characterization results of 3D printed sensor showed monoclinic CuO phase and scaffold structures, which provided active porous sites for enhanced gas adsorption and room-temperature gas-sensing performances. According to gas-sensing data, the 3D printed CuO gas sensor exhibited good repeatability, high stability (>3 months), low humidity dependency (25–65 %RH), high sensitivity and selectivity towards ammonia at room temperature. The sensor response increased linearly with increasing NH₃ concentration from 25 to 200 ppm. The sensing mechanism of the 3D printed CuO sensor was proposed based on the resistance change via reaction on adsorbed surface oxygen species or direct electron transfer between ammonia molecules and CuO. This approach could open up new ways to fabricate semiconductor gas sensors with controllable sizes and shapes for future gas-sensing applications.