Sensing behaviour of some nanocomposite systems

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles of diameters 3.4 to 13.2 nm grown at the interfaces between silicate glass and some oxide crystallites exhibited about six orders of magnitude reduction in resistivity for a relative humidity change from 25% to 80%. Sn-SnO₂ nano core-shell structure prepared within a gel-derived silica glass film by electrodeposition technique followed by heat treatment showed large change in resistivity as a function of humidity. The resistivity also changed due to gas flow of CO₂, C₂H₅OH and NO₂, respectively. The latter arose because of reduction/oxidation of Sn⁴⁺/Sn²⁺ species present at the shell layer of the nanostructures. Nickel nanosheets of thickness ~0.6 nm grown within the interlayer spaces of Na-4 mica crystallites showed a change of dielectric permittivity (5%) for an applied magnetic field of 1.2 Tesla. An inhomogeneous model was used to explain this behavior. Two dimensional CuO phase was grown within the channels of diameter ~5 nm of mesoporous SiO2 structure. A magnetodielectric (MD) parameter M.D. of 4.4% was obtained in this case. BaTiO₃ nanoparticles of diameter ~25 nm having pores with diameter 10 nm showed multiferroic behavior which arose due to the presence of oxygen vacancies as a result of large surface area present. An M.D. parameter of 11% was found. Similarly mesoporous LiNbO₃ of 10 nm diameter showed an M.D. parameter of ~4.5% at a magnetic field 1 Tesla. A giant magnetocapacitance effect with a value of 44% at 1.5 T was observed in nickel zinc ferrite (NZF) impregnated mesoporous silica. A magnetocapacitance of 51% at magnetic field 1.7 T was found in the case of nanocomposites comprising of iron ion containing silica based nanoglass and mesoporous silica. In the last two examples the behavior was explained on the basis of Catalan model of space-charge polarization with extracted values of magnetoresistance of the NZF and nanoglass phases being 58%.