Moisture sensing studies of CuO‐ZnO nanocomposites

Abstract

This paper reports the characterization and humidity sensing studies of CuO–ZnO nanocomposites prepared by solid‐state reaction method. The electrical resistance of nanocomposites continuously decreased when relative humidity ( RH ) was increased from 10% to 95% RH . Nanocomposites with 1 wt% of CuO in ZnO showed the best results with a sensitivity of 29.95 MΩ/% RH . This sample also showed low hysteresis and high reproducibility. This sample had an average particle and crystallite size of 200 nm and 70 nm, respectively. Measurement of crystallite size by both the methods, that is, Scherer's formula and Williamson and Hall method matched with an error of ±4%.