Ambient temperature operated acetaldehyde vapour detection of spray deposited cobalt doped zinc oxide thin film

Undoped and Co-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by a home built spray pyrolysis method. X-ray diffraction results indicate that both undoped and Co-doped ZnO have a polycrystalline nature and a preferential orientation peak in the (0 0 2) plane. From a field-emission scanning electron micrographs of annealed films, a uniform distribution of nanoparticles along with nanorods was observed. UV–Visible measurement indicated that all the films are transparent in the visible region. The electrical resistance was also reported. The acetaldehyde sensing behaviour of the prepared undoped and Co-doped ZnO thin films was studied using the chemi-resistive method at ambient temperature (∼30 °C). In the presence of 10 ppm of acetaldehyde vapour, the Co-doped ZnO thin films showed good sensing response of 74% with fast response and recovery time of 3 s and 110 s respectively.

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