Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances
Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) has emerged as a versatile and powerful nanofabrication technique for developing next-generation gas sensors by enabling precise control over nanostructure geometry, porosity, and material composition. Through dynamic substrate tilting and rotation, GLAD facilitates...
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2025-07-01
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| author | Shivam Singh Kenneth Christopher Stiwinter Jitendra Pratap Singh Yiping Zhao |
| author_facet | Shivam Singh Kenneth Christopher Stiwinter Jitendra Pratap Singh Yiping Zhao |
| author_sort | Shivam Singh |
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| description | Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) has emerged as a versatile and powerful nanofabrication technique for developing next-generation gas sensors by enabling precise control over nanostructure geometry, porosity, and material composition. Through dynamic substrate tilting and rotation, GLAD facilitates the fabrication of highly porous, anisotropic nanostructures, such as aligned, tilted, zigzag, helical, and multilayered nanorods, with tunable surface area and diffusion pathways optimized for gas detection. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in GLAD-based gas sensor design, focusing on how structural engineering and material integration converge to enhance sensor performance. Key materials strategies include the construction of heterojunctions and core–shell architectures, controlled doping, and nanoparticle decoration using noble metals or metal oxides to amplify charge transfer, catalytic activity, and redox responsiveness. GLAD-fabricated nanostructures have been effectively deployed across multiple gas sensing modalities, including resistive, capacitive, piezoelectric, and optical platforms, where their high aspect ratios, tailored porosity, and defect-rich surfaces facilitate enhanced gas adsorption kinetics and efficient signal transduction. These devices exhibit high sensitivity and selectivity toward a range of analytes, including NO<sub>2</sub>, CO, H<sub>2</sub>S, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with detection limits often reaching the parts-per-billion level. Emerging innovations, such as photo-assisted sensing and integration with artificial intelligence for data analysis and pattern recognition, further extend the capabilities of GLAD-based systems for multifunctional, real-time, and adaptive sensing. Finally, current challenges and future research directions are discussed, emphasizing the promise of GLAD as a scalable platform for next-generation gas sensing technologies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a4486fd2fc2c4952acddf0a13ec1c4be |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2079-4991 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
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| series | Nanomaterials |
| spelling | doaj-art-a4486fd2fc2c4952acddf0a13ec1c4be2025-08-20T03:32:27ZengMDPI AGNanomaterials2079-49912025-07-011514113610.3390/nano15141136Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor PerformancesShivam Singh0Kenneth Christopher Stiwinter1Jitendra Pratap Singh2Yiping Zhao3Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USAGlancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) has emerged as a versatile and powerful nanofabrication technique for developing next-generation gas sensors by enabling precise control over nanostructure geometry, porosity, and material composition. Through dynamic substrate tilting and rotation, GLAD facilitates the fabrication of highly porous, anisotropic nanostructures, such as aligned, tilted, zigzag, helical, and multilayered nanorods, with tunable surface area and diffusion pathways optimized for gas detection. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in GLAD-based gas sensor design, focusing on how structural engineering and material integration converge to enhance sensor performance. Key materials strategies include the construction of heterojunctions and core–shell architectures, controlled doping, and nanoparticle decoration using noble metals or metal oxides to amplify charge transfer, catalytic activity, and redox responsiveness. GLAD-fabricated nanostructures have been effectively deployed across multiple gas sensing modalities, including resistive, capacitive, piezoelectric, and optical platforms, where their high aspect ratios, tailored porosity, and defect-rich surfaces facilitate enhanced gas adsorption kinetics and efficient signal transduction. These devices exhibit high sensitivity and selectivity toward a range of analytes, including NO<sub>2</sub>, CO, H<sub>2</sub>S, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with detection limits often reaching the parts-per-billion level. Emerging innovations, such as photo-assisted sensing and integration with artificial intelligence for data analysis and pattern recognition, further extend the capabilities of GLAD-based systems for multifunctional, real-time, and adaptive sensing. Finally, current challenges and future research directions are discussed, emphasizing the promise of GLAD as a scalable platform for next-generation gas sensing technologies.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/15/14/1136glancing angle deposition (GLAD)gas sensorsnanostructured thin filmssurface functionalizationnoble metal decorationheterojunctions |
| spellingShingle | Shivam Singh Kenneth Christopher Stiwinter Jitendra Pratap Singh Yiping Zhao Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances Nanomaterials glancing angle deposition (GLAD) gas sensors nanostructured thin films surface functionalization noble metal decoration heterojunctions |
| title | Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances |
| title_full | Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances |
| title_fullStr | Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances |
| title_full_unstemmed | Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances |
| title_short | Glancing Angle Deposition in Gas Sensing: Bridging Morphological Innovations and Sensor Performances |
| title_sort | glancing angle deposition in gas sensing bridging morphological innovations and sensor performances |
| topic | glancing angle deposition (GLAD) gas sensors nanostructured thin films surface functionalization noble metal decoration heterojunctions |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/15/14/1136 |
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