Preparation and Study of NH3 Gas Sensing Behavior of Fe2O3 Doped ZnO Thick Film Resistors

Abstract

The preparation, characterization and gas sensing properties of pure and Fe2O3-ZnO mixed oxide semiconductors have been investigated. The mixed oxides were obtained by mixing ZnO and Fe2O3 in the proportion 1:1, 1:0.5 and 0.5:1. Pure ZnO was observed to be insensitive to NH3 gas. However, mixed oxides (with ZnO: Fe2O3 =1:0.5) were observed to be highly sensitive to ammonia gas. Upon exposure to NH3 gas, the barrier height of Fe2O3-ZnO intergranular regions decreases markedly due to the chemical transformation of Fe2O3 into well conducting ferric ammonium hydroxide leading to a drastic decrease in resistance. The crucial gas response was found to NH3 gas at 3500C and no cross response was observed to other hazardous and polluting gases. The effects of microstructure and doping concentration on the gas response, selectivity, response and recovery of the sensor in the presence of NH3 gas were studied and discussed.

Keywords

• ZnO
• Fe2O3
• cross response
• thick film resistor
• NH3 gas sensor