Effect of terbium doping on structural, optical and gas sensing properties of In₂O₃ nanoparticles

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Kanica Anand ^{kanica.anand@yahoo.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Jasmeet Kaur ^{jasmeet.dayal@gmail.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Ravi Chand Singh ^{ravichand.singh@gmail.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Rengasamy Thangaraj ; ^{rthangaraj@rediffmail.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：Rare earth ; Doping ; In2O3 ; Sensor Response
• 刊名：Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：November 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：39
• 期：Complete
• 页码：476-483
• 全文大小：2088 K

文摘

In this work, the effect of terbium (Tb³⁺) as dopant on the structural, optical, electrical and gas sensing properties of In₂O₃ (indium oxide) nanoparticles has been discussed. In₂O₃ and Tb³⁺-doped In₂O₃ nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile and cost effective co-precipitation method. XRD analysis revealed the formation of bixbyite-type cubic phase for In₂O₃ and Tb³⁺-doped In₂O₃ nanoparticles which was further supported by Raman studies. It was observed that the crystallite size of In₂O₃ nanoparticles decreased, while structural disorder increased with increase in Tb³⁺ concentration. SEM micrographs showed that particles were spherical in shape and EDS corroborated the presence of Tb³⁺ in doped In₂O₃ nanoparticles. A broadening and shifting of Raman peaks with increase in Tb³⁺ content was also observed. For gas sensing characteristics, the nanoparticles were applied as thick film onto the alumina substrate and tested at different operating temperatures for various volatile organic compounds (such as methanol, ethanol, acetone) and ammonia. The results indicated that the sensor based on 5%Tb³⁺-doped In₂O₃ nanoparticles presented much higher sensor response to 50ppm ethanol at 300 °C temperature than the pure In₂O₃ sensor. The enhancement of the response may be attributed to high surface basicity, small size and large lattice distortion of doped In₂O₃ sensor.