Characterization of NASICON Structure Prepared with Titanium Dioxide Doping for NOx Gas Sensor Application

An alternative sensor that can be used to monitor Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) levels in the air is an electrochemical sensor type such as Sodium Super Ionic Conductor (NASICON). In this study titanium doping on zirconium was carried out to improve the electrical conductivity of NASICON. This material was synthesized using the solid state method by mixing sodium carbonate, silicon dioxide, zirconium oxide, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, titanium dioxide and some anhydrous ethanol into the Ballmill for 12 hours, dried at 80 °C for 12 hours then calcined at 1125 °C for 12 hours with heating rate of 2 °C.min-1. Then the material was pressed at 160 MPa to produce pellets with diameter of 10 mm and the sintering process was carried out at 1175 °C for 12 hours at a speed of 1 °C.min-1. The doping of Titanium was varied from 0 to 6 mol%. The XRD characterization results indicate that the formed material phase was monoclinic phase and rhombohedral phase. The most optimal electrical conductivity of 5.897x10-5 S.cm-1 was obtained by Titanium doping of 6 mol%.