Research

Energy Sciences

Title :

Fabrication and Characterization of Ag doped Al2O3:TiO2 Nanowire Array Device for UV-Vis Detection and Breath Sensing Application

Area of research :

Energy Sciences

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Mitra Barun Sarkar, National Institute Of Technology (NIT) Agartala, Tripura

Timeline Start Year :

2023

Timeline End Year :

2026

Contact info :

Equipments :

Details

Executive Summary :

Human breath is one of the most important physiological features of the human body, and it can provide crucial information for any ailment. In recent years, coronavirus disease (COVID) has had a significant impact on human breathing. Shortness of breath follows milder symptoms like low-grade fever, weariness, malaise, body aches, and other COVID related symptoms. Any sensing gadget that is clearly marketable when the electrical characteristics are examined. Breathing can be detected using the detection characteristics of electronic devices. The breath sensor needs to be stable because it is a flexible sensor that can be used in a variety of situations. So, for the purposes of breath sensing, Ag doped Al₂O₃:TiO₂ nanowire array devices can be efficiently used in the said field by measuring conductance variations in metal-oxide sensors. However, TiO2 is sensitive to the UV region of the light spectrum due to its bandgap (~3.2 eV). Therefore, by adjusting the bandgap with surface modification, it may also be employed for UV-Vis photosensing. Since the last few decades, surface modification of transparent metal oxide has sparked a lot of curiosity. It can be accomplished by inserting a 1D or 2D nanostructure on the surface, or by doping metal and nonmetal in the oxide. Here, a unique and cost-effective metal doping technique will be utilized to dope the vertical double layered metal oxide heteronanostructure. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanowire will be directly evaporated inside the E-Beam chamber, which will then be doped with Ag via high temperature annealing. After that, aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) nanowire will be deposited onto the Ag doped TiO₂ nanowire using the double-step glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique, which will also be doped with silver (Ag). The high temperature annealing will be carried out using suitable annealing conditions from 400ºC to 1200ºC. Metallization will be done to fabricate metal electrodes of circular shape by the evaporation of metal through an aluminium mask hole. The proposed fabricated device will be used for breath sensing purposes and better UV-Vis photodetection.

Co-PI:

Dr. Laishram Robindro Singh, North Eastern Hill University, Meghalaya-793022

Total Budget (INR):

57,66,332

Organizations involved