Gas discrimination using screen-printed piezoelectric cantilevers coated with carbon nanotubes

•Fabrication of screen printed resonant cantilevers with double transduction mechanism is achieved.•Coating of the cantilever with plasma treated carbon nanotubes enables the detection of both reducing and oxidizing gases.•Usefulness of the double transduction (frequency and electrical resistance shifts) is shown. In this paper, a screen-printed piezoelectric microcantilever coated with oxygen plasma treated multiwall carbon nanotubes (named O-MWCNTs) as sensitive layer is used as a resonant type gas sensor. In parallel, the resistance of the O-MWCNTs layer is measured thanks to a modification of the cantilever top electrode. Positive and negative shifts of the resonance frequency are observed at low and high gas concentrations, respectively. These are attributed to stress or to mass effects becoming dominant at low or high gas concentration levels respectively. Monitoring the resistance of the p-type O-MWCNTs film helps discriminating gases according to their oxidizing or reducing character. The responses towards C6H6, CO and NO2 concentrations are discussed.