Sputtered Nickel Oxide Films for NO₂ Gas Sensors

Abstract:

In recent years, lot of efforts was made to develop many types of nitrogen oxide gas sensors. Among them, most interesting are WO3, V2O5, TiO2, SnO2 and NiO thin films as gas sensing layers. Relatively small effort has been done to examine nickel oxide. But reasonably good electrical properties and stability in air make it feasible for the fabrication of nickel oxide thin film based gas sensors. Hence, in the present study NiO thin films were deposited by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique from a nickel metal target in argon and oxygen mixed atmosphere and studied its gas sensing properties towards NO2 gas. The effect of process parameters on the morphological and electrical properties of NiO was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Hall effect studies respectively. The films prepared at optimum conditions showed superior electrical properties and exhibited fine and uniform grains with RMS roughness 9.4 nm. These films were tested for gas sensing characteristics of NO2 gas. The sensitivity of NiO thin film was investigated in the temperature range 373 to 573 K. The dynamic response for the NiO films was observed at an operating temperature of 473 K and gas concentration of 50 ppm for NO2 gas.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 678)
• Pages: 361-364
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.678.361
• Online since: March 2013
• Authors: Avula Mallikarjuna Reddy, Akepati Sivasankar Reddy, Pamanji Sreedhara Reddy
• Keywords: Electrical Properties, Nickel Oxide (NiO), NO₂ Gas Sensor, Surface Morphology

References

[1] K. Galatsis, Y.X. Li, W. Wlodarski, E. Comini, G. Sberveglieri, C. Cantalini, S. Santucci, M. Passacantando, Comparison of single and binary oxide MoO3, TiO2 and WO3 sol-gel gas sensors, Sens. Actuators B 83 (2002) 276-280.

DOI: 10.1016/s0925-4005(01)01072-3

[2] E. Comini, L. Yubao, Y. Brando, G. Sberveglieri, Gas sensing properties of MoO3 nanorods to CO and CH3OH, Chem. Phys. Lett. 407 (2005) 368-371.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2005.03.116

[3] A.Z. Sadek, S.Choopun, W. Wlodarski, S.J. Ippolito. K. Kalantar-zadeh, Characterization of ZnO nanobelt-based gas sensor for H2, NO2, and hydrocarbon sensing, IEEE Sens. J. 7 (2007) 919-924.

DOI: 10.1109/jsen.2007.895963

[4] A.Z. Sadek, W. Wlodarski, Y.X. Li, W. Yu, X. Li, X. Yu, K. Kalantar-zadeh, A ZnO nanorod based layered ZnO/64° YX LiNbO3 SAW hydrogen gas sensor, Thin Solid Films 515 (2007) 8705-8708.

DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2007.04.009

[5] C. Magana, D. Acosta, A. Martinez, J. Ortega, Electrochemically induced electrochromic properties in nickel thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering, Solar Energy 80 (2006) 161-169.

DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2005.04.006

[6] Y. Wang, Y. Zhang, H. Liu, S. Yu, Q. Qin, Nanocrystalline NiO thin film anode with MgO coating for Li-ion batteries, Electrochimica Acta 48 (2003) 4253-4259.

DOI: 10.1016/s0013-4686(03)00612-1

[7] H. Sato, T. Minami, S. Takata, T. Yamada, Transparent conducting p-type NiO thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering, Thin Solid Films 236 (1993) 27-31.

DOI: 10.1016/0040-6090(93)90636-4

[8] I. Hotovy, J. Huran, P. Siciliano, S. Capone, L. Spiess, V. Rehacek, The influences of preparation parameters on NiO thin film properties for gas-sensing application, Sens. Actuators B: Chem. 78 (2001) 126-132.

DOI: 10.1016/s0925-4005(01)00802-4

[9] S. Nishizawa, T. Tsurumi, H. Hyodo, Y. Ishibashi, N. Ohashi, M. Ya-mane, O. Fukunaga, Structural changes in ZnO/NiO artificial superlattices made by ion beam sputtering, Thin Solid Films 302 (1997) 133-139.

DOI: 10.1016/s0040-6090(97)00008-4

[10] C.R. Otterman, A. Temmink, K. Bange, Comparison of tungsten and nickel oxideelectrochromism in single films and in all-solid-state devices, Thin Solid Films 193/194 (1990) 409-417.

DOI: 10.1016/s0040-6090(05)80051-3

[11] L. J. van der Pauw, Philips Res. Rep. 13 (1958) 1-9.

[12] S. Capene, R. Rella, P. Siciliano, L. Vosanelli, A comparison between V2O5 and WO3 thin films as sensitive elements for NO detection, Thin Solid Films 350 (1999) 264-268.

DOI: 10.1016/s0040-6090(99)00045-0

[13] A. D' Amico, C.D. Natale, A. Taroni, G. Sberveg-lieri (Eds), Proceedings of the first European School on Sensors, World Scientific, Singapore, 1995, page 8.

[14] I. Hotovy, V. Rehacek, P. Siciliano, S. Capone, L. Spiess, Sensing characteristics of NiO thin films as NO2 gas sensor, Thin Solid Films 418 (2002) 9-15.

DOI: 10.1016/s0040-6090(02)00579-5