Fast response of pulsed laser deposited Zinc ferrite thin film as a chemo-resistive gas sensor

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that pulsed laser deposited zinc ferrite thin films rapidly and reliably detect ethanol gas at elevated temperatures, with response times significantly faster than nanoparticle powders, indicating potential for scalable sensor applications.

Contribution

The paper introduces a fast-response ethanol sensor based on pulsed laser deposited zinc ferrite thin films, with detailed analysis of adsorption kinetics and temperature effects, outperforming nanoparticle sensors.

Findings

Response time of ~12 seconds at 340°C for 500 ppm ethanol

High response (84%) and good repeatability of the sensor

Activation energies for adsorption, reaction, and desorption processes

Abstract

Thin films of ZnFe2O4 deposited by pulsed laser technique are here demonstrated as one of the interesting materials for sensing of ethanol. The response transients were fitted well to one-site Langmuir adsorption model. Activation energies for (I) adsorption and reaction of ethanol and (II) desorption (i.e. recovery process) of ethanol from zinc ferrite thin film surface were obtained on the basis of this model. In this paper, we showed the effect of operating temperature and gas-concentration on the response time of thin film sensor materials. At the operating temperature 340oC, the ZnFe2O4 thin film showed high (84%) as well as immediate response to 500 ppm of ethanol, with its resistance being saturated within ~12 seconds, which stands far superior to the response time of nano crystalline powders. Those films were also observed to have a good repeatability of their sensor response, thus representing a major step towards low-cost large-scale production of this class of devices.