Development of cost effective metal oxide semiconductor based gas sensor over flexible chitosan/PVP blended polymeric...

In the present work, biodegradable and flexible chitosan/polyvinylpyrrolidone (CHP) polymeric substrate was fabricated by solvent casting method. This is a novel demonstration of the combination of natural polymer (chitosan) and synthetic polymer (PVP) for next-generation semiconductor device applications. The ZnO thin films were successfully synthesized on these polymeric substrates by facile drop-casting method for gas sensing applications. The hydrogen gas sensing properties of ZnO deposited on the polymeric substrate and SiO₂ substrate show similar performance. The structural, morphological, optical, thermal, and tensile strength of the CHP substrate were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy, Derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG), and Universal testing machine (UTM), respectively. Our study suggests that the biodegradable CH/PVP flexible polymeric substrate provides a new way for the implementation of an eco-friendly green substrate in numerous electronic device applications.