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arXiv · 2502.15497

Thermally-induced microstructural evolution in nanoparticle-based CuO, WO$_3$ and CuO-WO$_3$ thin films for hydrogen gas sensing

Kalyani Shaji·Stanislav Haviar·Petr Zeman·Michal Procházka·Radomír Čerstvý·Nirmal Kumar·Jiří Čapek
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Abstract

This study systematically investigates the microstructural evolution of nanoparticle-based CuO, WO$_3$, and composite 'CuO-WO$_3$' thin films induced by their post-deposition annealing. The films were reactively deposited using a magnetron-based gas aggregation technique, with the composite films consisting of alternating monolayers of CuO and WO$_3$ nanoparticles. After deposition, the films were annealed in synthetic air at temperatures ranging from 200 to 400$^\circ$C and characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Annealing of the CuO films led to the most pronounced changes associated with a gradual enhancement of crystallinity accompanied by significant particle growth with increasing annealing temperature, while the WO$_3$ and CuO-WO$_3$ films were more thermally stable to crystallization and particle growth. Notably, at 400$^\circ$C, the CuO--WO$_3$ films crystallized into a novel $\gamma$-CuWO$_4$ phase. The annealed films were further evaluated for their gas-sensing performance upon H$_2$ exposure and the obtained results were analyzed in relation to film properties and the microstructural evolution induced by annealing.

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Kalyani Shaji, Stanislav Haviar, Petr Zeman, Michal Procházka, Radomír Čerstvý, Nirmal Kumar, Jiří Čapek. 2025-02-21. Thermally-induced microstructural evolution in nanoparticle-based CuO, WO$_3$ and CuO-WO$_3$ thin films for hydrogen gas sensing. https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15497

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