Study of the influence of the precursors on the sensing properties of ZnO:Cu system

The properties of ZnO based materials for ethanol detection have been studied. Cu doped samples obtained from different precursors have been investigated. ZnO and ZnS have been used as host and Cu and CuO as dopant sources. The sensing measurements have been mostly performed at room temperature. To monitor the effect of the presence of gas, resistivity and photoluminescence experiments with and without sensing gas have been carried out. The sensing behaviour is affected by the nature of the precursors used. For ZnO:Cu and ZnO:CuO series, a higher sensitivity is obtained at the lower gas concentrations, the better response is obtained for the sample ZnO:Cu with wt.1% of metallic copper. Strong segregation effects observed in these samples could be deleterious for the sensing properties. In the series ZnS:CuO, no segregation is observed, however the sensing behaviour is erratic and attributed to the reduction of Cu ions to the metallic state.