Improvement of The CO2 Sensitivity of HPTS Along With ZnO/CuO Nanoparticles: A Comparative Study Between Core-Shell and Hybrid Structures

Abstract

Semiconductor metal oxide materials have gained huge attention in gas sensors owing to theirhigh sensitivity to many target gases. Herein, ZnO/CuO core-shell and ZnO/CuO hybrid, which weresynthesized by different sol-gel methods and formed in two different crystal structures, were used as anadditive material to enhance the response range of 8-hydroxypyrene-1, 3, 6-trisulfonic acid (HPTS) for thesensing of gaseous carbon dioxide. Metal oxide materials were characterized by using XPS, XRD, FTIR,SEM, UV–Vis, and PL spectroscopy. The HPTS dye along with the ZnO/CuO hybrid material displayed ahigher CO2 gas sensitivity as 94% ratio (I0/I100=16.90) and Stern-Volmer constant (KSV) value andextended linear response range compared to the HPTS-based sensing thin films along with ZnO/CuO coreshell material and additive-free form. ZnO/CuO core-shell and hybrid structures were used for enhancingof carbon dioxide sensitivity of the HPTS dye.