Detection of ethanol gas at room temperature by In₂O₃-based screen-printed films fabricated through particle-free aqueous solution combustible inks

Abstract

The current work investigates the room temperature ethanol gas detection capabilities of pristine, Sn doped, Zn doped, Sn & Zn co-doped In2O3-based screen-printed films that are developed using particle-free aqueous solution combustible inks. The fabricated films were pure, polycrystalline with cubic bixbyite crystal structure, porous, and transparent (~75 to 95 % in the visible range). High surface roughness was detected in pristine film than in doped films. Ethanol gas of 50 to 100 ppm concentration was traced by all the films at room temperature. Among all, the pristine film showed a greater gas response at all concentrations of ethanol gas, and it was because of high oxygen vacancy concentration (OV/OL) and more relative area fraction of adsorbed oxygen (% of OA). Diminished amounts of OV/OL and % of OA caused a relatively low gas response in the doped films. The maximum ethanol gas response was discerned to be 17.3 at 100 ppm by the pristine film. The demonstrated film was also highly selective towards ethanol gas.