Nickel doped spray pyrolyzed nanostructured TiO2 thin films for LPG gas sensing

In present work simple spray pyrolysis technique was employed to prepare nanocrystalline pure and Ni (nickel)-doped TiO2 thin films. Aqueous solutions of analytical (AR) grade NiCl2·6H2O (0.01 M) and TiCl3·6H2O (0.01 M) were mixed in the volume % of 1:99, 2.5:97.5 and 5:95, respectively. The solutions were sprayed onto glass substrate heated at 350 °C. The films were annealed for 1 h at 550 °C. The films were studied using XRD, FESEM, TEM and EDAX. The gas sensing performance of pure and Ni doped films were studied on exposure of various gases. The Ni-doped TiO2 (2.5:97.5) thin film was observed to be most sensitive to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) at 250 °C. The results were interpreted.