Observation of enhanced sensing response and recovery time of lutetium-doped zinc ferrite ceramics for humidity sensor application

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 34; no. 30; p. 2038
• Main Authors: Laxmeshwar, Sofia Sultana, Kulkarni, Soumya S., Nadaf, Shainaz, Swathi, K. M, Savanur, Hemantkumar M., Chethan, B, Prasad, V., Jagadeesha Angadi, V, Ubaidullah, Mohd, Pandit, Bidhan, Kansal, Lavish
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry and Materials Science; Fourier transforms; Humidity; Infrared analysis; Infrared spectroscopy; Lutetium; Materials Science; Nanoparticles; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photomicrographs; Recovery time; Relative humidity; Scanning electron microscopy; Sensors; Spectrum analysis; X-ray diffraction; Zinc ferrites
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-023-11480-w

It is crucial to have an effective and efficient humidity sensing material for humidity sensor applications. In this study, Lu 3+ -doped Zinc ferrites were prepared by chemical synthesis method using urea and glucose as fuels for the first time. The prepared powder samples were subjected to several analyses, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), to examine the structural and morphological changes in ZnFe 2 − x Lu x o 4 (where x  = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7). The XRD results show that a single phase was formed without any impurity peak, as confirmed by XRD. The FTIR spectra exhibited two prominent bands at 532 cm −1 and 360 cm −1 , which are characteristic features of spinel ferrite. SEM micrographs revealed that the nanoparticles were almost spherical in shape, porous in nature, and fairly uniform in size. Further analysis of the nanoparticle with EDAX confirmed the elemental composition. The humidity sensing behavior of Lu-doped ZnFe 2 O 4 was tested in the relative humidity range of 11 to 97%. Among the samples, Lu = 0.05 exhibited the highest sensing response of 97% with response and recovery times of 35.6 and 6.5 s, respectively. Hence, our results suggest that the synthesized samples are useful for humidity sensor applications.