Acoustoelectric Effect on the Responses of SAW Sensors Coated with Electrospun ZnO Nanostructured Thin Film

Abstract

In this study, zinc oxide (ZnO) was a very good candidate for improving the sensitivity of gas sensor technology. The preparation of an electrospun ZnO nanostructured thin film on a 433 MHz Rayleigh wave based Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensor and the investigation of the acoustoelectric effect on the responses of the SAW sensor are reported. We prepared an electrospun ZnO nanostructured thin film on the SAW devices by using an electrospray technique. To investigate the dependency of the sensor response on the structure and the number of the ZnO nanoparticles, SAW sensors were prepared with different coating loads. The coating frequency shifts were adjusted to fall between 100 kHz and 2.4 MHz. The sensor measurements were performed against VOCs such as acetone, trichloroethylene, chloroform, ethanol, <em>n</em>-propanol and methanol vapor. The sensor responses of <em>n</em>-propanol have opposite characteristics to the other VOCs, and we attributed these characteristics to the elastic effect/acoustoelectric effect.

Keywords

• surface acoustic waves
• zinc oxide
• nanostructures
• electrospun
• acoustoelectric effect