Study on the Synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles Using Azadirachta indica Extracts for the Fabrication of a Gas Sensor

Abstract

This paper compared the effects of <i>A. indica</i> plant proteins over chemical methods in the morphology of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) prepared by a co-precipitation method, and ethanol sensing performance of prepared thin films deposited over a fluorene-doped tin oxide (FTO) bind glass substrate using spray pyrolysis technique. The average crystallite sizes and diameters of the grain-sized cluster ZnO NPs were 25 and (701.79 ± 176.21) nm for an undoped sample and 20 and (489.99 ± 112.96) nm for <i>A. india</i> dye-doped sample. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis confirmed the formation of the Zn-O bond at 450 cm^-1, and also showed the presence of plant proteins due to <i>A. indica</i> dye extracts. ZnO NPs films exhibited good response (up to 51 and 72% for without and with <i>A. indica</i> dye-doped extracts, respectively) toward ethanol vapors with quick response-recovery characteristics at a temperature of 250 °C for undoped and 225 °C for <i>A. indica</i> dye-doped ZnO thin films. The interaction of <i>A. indica</i> dye extracts helps to decrease the operating temperature and increased the response and recovery rates of the sensor, which may be due to an increase in the specific surface area, resulting in adsorption of more oxygen and hence high response results.