Properties of nanocrystallite Cu1-XZnXO films grown by chemical deposition for biosensors and antimicrobial applications

Abstract

Nanocrystallite metal oxide films have attracted great attention for their applications in chemical sensors [1], biosensors [2] and for antimicrobial applications [3]. In this context, copper oxide it is well known as effective photocatalytic material and investigated for inactivation of bacteria [2-3]. In this work, nanocrystallite Cu1-xZnxO films were grown by chemical deposition from aqueous solution of copper sulphate, zinc sulphate, sodium thiosulphate. We found that post-growth processing parameters, such as heating rate, annealing temperature and ambient, were crucial to form nanocrystallite Cu1-xZnxO films. Rapid thermal annealing in air at 650 °C with fast temperature ramp rate resulted in formation of tenorite phase of the deposition. High-magnification SEM studies showed in Figure 1(inset) that layers are formed from nanocrystallites of single crystal nanomaterial.