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Aluminum-doped ZnO nano-laminar structures by pulsed laser ablation for gas sensing application

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Abstract

In this study, aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) at 0.3 wt.% was synthesized by a pulsed Nd: YAG laser with a fundamental wavelength (1064 nm). The laser beam is focused on a ZnO-doped target immersed in distilled water at two pulse energies of 200 and 400 mJ. The procedure was applied in two cases: without and with the presence of the magnetic field. AZO nanoparticles were investigated by UV–visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, a mixture of metal oxide nanoparticles was used for gas-sensing application. XRD shows the enhancement of crystallization in the presence of the magnetic field. SEM images show the adoption of AZO thin nanostructures in the high surface region with applying an external magnetic field and with increasing laser power. The AZO-based syngas sensor has greater sensitivity against NO2 gas than H2S gas with an optimal operating temperature of 200 °C. The use of laser energy of 400 mJ with a magnetic field leads to the creation of a nanostructure with a large surface area, which makes it highly sensitive, especially to NO2 gas compared to other samples. The prepared active layer for the gas sensor has an acceptable sensitivity against NO2 gas more than H2S gas with an optimal operating temperature of 200 °C.

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Funding

The present research did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. So its personal work and the statement of declaration of interests are only mine and support has been subjected during the research work for the past year.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

    Zahraa Marid Abbas & Qusay Adnan Abbas

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  1. Zahraa Marid Abbas
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Contributions

Each co-author has made specific unique contributions to the work. The authors ZMA prepared the thin films of ZnO and contributed to conceptualizations writing–original draft. The author QAA prepared the special program for optical properties and contributed to supervision and editing analysis.

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Correspondence to Zahraa Marid Abbas.

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Abbas, Z.M., Abbas, Q.A. Aluminum-doped ZnO nano-laminar structures by pulsed laser ablation for gas sensing application. J Opt 53, 544–557 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12596-023-01192-z

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