STUDYING STRUCTURAL, OPTICAL, ELECTRICAL, AND SENSING PROPERTIES OF NANOCRYSTALLINE SnO2:Cu FILMS PREPARED BY SOL–GEL METHOD FOR CO GAS SENSOR APPLICATION AT LOW TEMPERATURE

Selma M. H. Al-Jawad, Abdulhussain K. Elttayf and Amel S. Saber
Additional contact information
Selma M. H. Al-Jawad: School of Applied Sciences, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq
Abdulhussain K. Elttayf: #x2020;Ministry of Science and Technology, Iraq
Amel S. Saber: #x2020;Ministry of Science and Technology, Iraq

Surface Review and Letters (SRL), 2017, vol. 24, issue 08, 1-12

Abstract: Nanocrystalline SnO2 and SnO2:Cu thin films derived from SnCl2⋅2H2O precursors have been prepared on glass substrates using sol–gel dip-coating technique. The deposited film was 300±20nm thick and the films were annealed in air at 500∘C for 1h. Structural, optical and sensing properties of the films were studied under different preparation conditions, such as Cu-doping concentration of 2%, 4% and 6wt.%. X-ray diffraction studies show the polycrystalline nature with tetragonal rutile structure of SnO2 and Cu:SnO2 thin films. The films have highly preferred orientation along (110). The crystallite size of the prepared samples reduced with increasing Cu-doping concentrations and the addition of Cu as dopants changed the structural properties of the thin films. Surface morphology was determined through scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Results show that the particle size decreased as doping concentration increased. The films have moderate optical transmission (up to 82.4% at 800nm), and the transmittance, absorption coefficient and energy gap at different Cu-doping concentration were measured and calculated. Results show that Cu-doping decreased the transmittance and energy gap whereas it increased the absorption coefficient. Two peaks were noted with Cu-doping concentration of 0–6wt.%; the first peak was positioned exactly at 320nm ultraviolet emission and the second was positioned at 430–480nm. Moreover, emission bands were noticed in the photoluminescence spectra of Cu:SnO2. The electrical properties of SnO2 films include DC electrical conductivity, showing that the films have two activation energies, namely, Ea1 and Ea2, which increase as Cu-doping concentration increases. Cudoped nanocrystalline SnO2 gas-sensing material has better sensitivity to CO gas compared with pure SnO2.

Keywords: SnO2; structure properties; optical properties; sol–gel; scanning electron microscopy; Cu-doping; activation energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218625X17501104
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:srlxxx:v:24:y:2017:i:08:n:s0218625x17501104

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0218625X17501104

Access Statistics for this article

Surface Review and Letters (SRL) is currently edited by S Y Tong

More articles in Surface Review and Letters (SRL) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().