Preparation and acetone sensitive characteristics of nano-LaFeO3 semiconductor thin films by polymerization complex method

Perovskite structure nano-LaFeO3 thin films were prepared by polymerization complex method using La(NO3)(3)center dot 6H(2)O, FeCl3 center dot 6H(2)O as raw materials, citric acid (CA) as chelating agent and ethylene glycol (EG) as cross-linking agent. Nano-LaFeO3 thin films were fabricated on Al2O3 substrates by dip-coating, drying, pre-heating and sintering. The precursor and thin films were characterized by IR, AFM, XRD and SEM. The results revealed that the homogeneous LaFeO3 thin films with the grain size of about 37 nm and the thickness of approximately 2 mu m were successfully synthesized at the sintering temperature of 650 degrees C. The nano-LaFeO3 semiconductor thin films have higher sensitive to acetone gas with lower concentration, which exposed to 80 ppm acetone gas show that sensitivity are 204, and response time are within 15 s at the testing temperature of 400 degrees C. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.