This work focuses on the preparation of pure nanocrystalline SnO2 and SnO2:Cu thin films on cleaned glass substrates utilizing a sol-gel spin coating and chemical bath deposition (CBD) procedures. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the possible use of these thin films in the context of gas sensor applications. The films underwent annealing in an air environment at a temperature of 500 ◦C for duration of 60 minutes. The thickness of the film that was deposited may be estimated to be around 300 nm. The investigation included an examination of the structural, optical, electrical, and sensing characteristics, which were explored across various preparation circumstances, specifically focusing on varied concentrations of Cu-doping (2, 4, and 6 wt.%). The deposited films were analyzed by several techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and optical absorption spectroscopy. The films generated by the spin coating method had a tetragonal rutile structure, while the films created via the chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique displayed both tetragonal rutile and orthorhombic structures. The spin coating technique was used to make films of several weight percentages (0, 2, 4, and 6 wt.%). The resulting crystallite sizes were examined and found to be 23 nm, 18 nm, 14 nm, and 10.5 nm, respectively. Similarly, films made using the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method exhibited crystallite sizes of 22, 13.9, 9.3, and 8.15 nm, respectively. The obtained findings from atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses indicate a consistent trend whereby, as the concentration of Cu-doped material rises, there is a decrease in the average grain size. The transmittance and absorbance spectra were examined within the wavelength range of 300 to 1000 nm. The films generated by both approaches exhibit a significant level of light transmission throughout the visible spectrum. The bandgap energy of spin coating and CBD films decreases with increasing Cu-doped concentrations; the values were (3.88, 3.8, 3.68, and 3.63) eV and (3.8, 3.78, 3.66, and 3.55) eV, respectively. The electrical characteristics of the films include direct current (DC) electrical conductivity, which indicates the presence of two activation energies, Ea1 and Ea2. These activation energies exhibit an upward trend when the concentration of Cu doping is increased. The films were examined for their ability to detect carbon monoxide (CO) gas at a concentration of about 50 ppm at normal room temperature conditions. The sensitivity of the films to carbon monoxide (CO) gas was assessed at various time intervals and temperatures. The results indicated that the film generated using spin coating exhibited a notably high sensitivity at a temperature of 200 °C, while the film prepared using the chemical bath deposition (CBD) approach had heightened sensitivity at a temperature of 150 °C. Keywords: Spin coating, SnO2 thin films, CBD, AFM, XRD, gas sensor.
We studied the changing of structural and optical properties of pure and Aluminum-doped ZnO thin films prepared by thermal evaporation technique on glass substrates at thickness (800±50)nm with changing of annealing temperatures ( 200,250,300 )℃ for one hour. The investigation of (XRD) indicates that the pure and doped ZnO thin films were polycrystalline of a hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferred orientation along (002) plane. The grain size was decreased with doping before annealing, but after annealing the grain size is increasing with the increase of annealing temperature for pure film whereas for the doped films with ratios 1 %, 2 % we found that the grain size is larger than that before annealing. The grain size
... Show MoreTin Selenide (SnSe) Nano crystalline thin films of thickness 400±20 nm were deposited on glass substrate by thermal evaporation technique at R.T under a vacuum of ∼ 2 × 10− 5 mbar to study the effect of annealing temperatures (as-deposited, 100, 150 and 200) °C on its structural, surface morphology and optical properties. The films structure was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) which showed that all the films have polycrystalline in nature and orthorhombic structure, with the preferred orientation along the (111) plane. These films was synthesized of very fine crystallites size of (14.8-24.5) nm, the effect of annealing temperatures on the cell parameters, crystallite size and dislocation density were observed.
... Show MoreTiO2 thin films were deposited by reactive d.c magnetron sputtering method on a glass substrate with various ratio of gas flow (Oxygen /Argon) (50/50, 100/50 and 150/50) at substrate temperature 573K. It can be observe that the optical energy gap of TiO2 thin films dependent on the ratio of gas flow (oxygen/argon), it varies between (3.45eV-3.57eV) also it is seen that the optical constants (α, n, K, εr and εi ) has been varied with the change of the ratio of gas flow (Oxygen /Argon).
SnO2 thin films of different two thicknesses were prepared an glass substrate by DC magnetron sputtering. The crystal structure and orientation of the films were investigated by XRD patterns. All the deposited films are polycrystalline. The grain size was calculated as 25.35, 28.8 nm. Morphological and compositions of the films were performed by SEM and EDX analyses respectively. The films appeared compact and rougher surface in nature. The allowed direct band gap was evaluated as 3.85 eV, and other optical constants such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary parts of dielectric constants were determined from transmittance spectrum in the wavelength range (300-900) nm and also analyzed.
A simple all optical fiber sensor based on multimode interference (MMI) for chemical liquids sensing was designed and fabricated. A segment of coreless fiber (CF) was spliced between two single mode fibers to buildup single mode-coreless-single mode (SCS) structure. Broadband source and optical signal analyzer were connected to the ends of SCS structure. De-ionized water, acetone, and n-hexane were used to test the performance of the sensor. Two influence factors on the sensitivity namely the length and the diameter of the CF were investigated. The obtained maximum sensitivity was at n-hexane at 340.89 nm/RIU (at a wavelength resolution of the optical spectrum analyzer of 0.02 nm) when the diameter of the CF reduced from 125 μm to 60 μ
... Show MorePhotonic crystal fiber interferometers are used in many sensing applications. In this work, an in-reflection photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based on Mach-Zehnder (micro-holes collapsing) (MZ) interferometer, which exhibits high sensitivity to different volatile organic compounds (VOCs), without the needing of any permeable material. The interferometer is robust, compact, and consists of a stub photonic crystal fiber of large-mode area, photonic crystal fiber spliced to standard single mode fiber (SMF) (corning-28), this splicing occurs with optimized splice loss 0.19 dB In the splice regions the voids of the holey fiber are completely collapsed, which allows the excitation and recombination of core and cladding modes. The device reflection
... Show MoreBackground: The best material for dental implants is polyetherketoneketone (PEKK). However, this substance is neither osteoinductive nor osteoconductive, preventing direct bone apposition. Modifying the PEKK with bioactive elements like strontium hydroxyapatite is one method to overcome this (Sr-HA). Due to the technique's capacity to provide better control over the coating's properties, RF magnetron sputtering has been found to be a particularly useful technique for deposition. Materials and methods : With specific sputtering conditions, the RF magnetron technique was employed to provide a homogeneous and thin coating on Polyetherketoneketone substrates.. the coatings were characterized by Contact angle, adhesion test, X-ray
... Show MoreBackground: The best material for dental implants is polyetherketoneketone (PEKK). However, this substance is neither osteoinductive nor osteoconductive, preventing direct bone apposition. Modifying the PEKK with bioactive elements like strontium hydroxyapatite is one method to overcome this (Sr-HA). Due to the technique's capacity to provide better control over the coating's properties, RF magnetron sputtering has been found to be a particularly useful technique for deposition.
Materials and methods : With specific sputtering conditions, the RF magnetron technique was employed to provide a homogeneous and thin coating on Polyetherketoneketone substrates.. the coatings were characterized by Contact angle, adhesion test, X-ray dif
... Show MoreGas sensors are essential for detecting noxious gases that have a detrimental effect on people's health and welfare. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are the fundamental component of gas detectors. CQDs and graphene (Gr) were prepared using the electrochemical method. The gas sensitivity of these materials was evaluated at different temperatures (150, 200, 250 °C) to assess their effectiveness. Subsequently, experiments were conducted at different temperatures to ascertain that the combination of CQDs and Gr, with various percentages of Gr and CQDs, exhibited superior gas sensitization properties compared to CQDs alone. This was evaluated based on criteria such as sensitivity, recovery time, and reaction time. Interestingly, the combination was
... Show More