High Sensitivity of Porous Cu-Doped SnO2 Thin Films to Methanol

Porous Cu-doped SnO2 thin films were synthesized by the sol-gel dip-coating method for enhancing methanol sensing performance. The effect of Cu doping concentration on the SnO2 sensibility was investigated. XRD data confirm that the fabricated SnO2 films are polycrystalline with tetragonal rutile crystal structure. AFM and SEM micrographs confirmed the roughness and the porosity of SnO2 surface, respectively. UV-Vis spectrum shows that SnO2 thin films exhibit high transmittance in the visible region ~95%. The band gap (3.80 - 3.92 eV) and the optical thickness (893 - 131 nm) of prepared films were calculated from transmittance data. The sensing results demonstrate that SnO2 films have a high sensitivity and a fast response to methanol. In particular, 3% Cu-SnO2 films have a higher sensitivity (98%), faster response (10-2 s) and shorter recovery time (18 s) than other films.