A comparative study on the structure, morphology and ethanol sensitivity of ZnO thin films alloyed with graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide

This paper, presents a comparative study on the ethanol vapor sensitivity of ZnO and graphene/reduced graphene oxide alloyed ZnO thin films prepared by a facile and economic technique. To characterize the yielded composites, the pertinent morphology, composition and structure were studied by XRD, HRTEM, SEM, and EDX spectroscopy. The gas sensing analysis showed the optimum working temperature of 300 °C for the synthesized samples. The graphene oxide alloyed ZnO thin film showed higher sensitivity than the other counterparts. Furthermore, changes in response and recovery time with the ethanol vapor concentration were surveyed. It was observed that, the sensitivity rises as the ethanol concentration increases. Meanwhile, it was unveiled that the response and recovery time are very sensitive to the surface morphology of the films.