PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NANOCRYSTALLINE BI2O3: A NOVEL CANDIDATE FOR ETHANOL SENSING

The present paper describes synthesis and analysis of nanocrystalline powders of Bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) for etanol gas sensing application. The Bi2O3 were prepared by ethyl alcohol mediated decomposition route. The structural, electrical and reducing gas sensing properties of prepared samples was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to confirm the material structure and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to depict the crystallite microstructure. The gas sensing properties of (Bi2O3) were studied by depositing thick films. Conductance responses of the nanocrystalline Bi2O3 based thick films were measured by exposing the film to reducing gases like ammonia (NH3), liquefied petroleum (LPG), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and ethanol gas (C2H5OH). It was found that the sensor exhibited various sensing responses to these gases at different operating temperatures. No cross sensitivity was observed during the gas sensing measurements. Furthermore, fast response and good recovery are the main features of investigated sensors. In order to continue the scaling trend there is need of solutions for issues occurred during the process integration. Thus there is increase in demand of new process technology and materials which should be coming up with new process. The reliability challenges for copper interconnects are discussed in present paper. Also need of low-k and porous low-k related issues are highlighted in this paper