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The biomedical, chemical, drug and food industries have great demand of an
alcohol sensor with high sensitivity and selectivity which can operate at low
temperature. In this study, CuO thin films were deposited on well cleaned glass
substrates by spray pyrolysis technique for 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 molar concentrations
of copper chloride precursor solutions and at a substrate temperature of 300°C
and at an air pressure of 0.4 kg cm-2. X-ray diffraction patterns
of the prepared films revealed the formation of CuO thin films having monoclinic
structure with a grain size ranging from 35 to 54 nm. The microstrain and dislocation
densities are found to decrease with increase in molar concentration. The surface
morphology and the elemental composition of the deposited samples were analyzed
using SEM and EDAX. The change in resistivity of the films was studied with
respect to the change in temperature using two probe method. From Laser Raman
spectral studies, the characteristic Raman peaks of the prepared samples were
observed. The ethanol gas sensing properties of the prepared films were studied
for 100 and 200 ppm ethanol vapour.
