Thermal diffusivity studies of ZnO-CuO at high temperatures

An n-type semiconducting oxide such as zinc oxide (zno) has been exploited for their well-known gas sensing properties. previous studies on these applications have mainly focused on electrical properties. only limited reports were available on thermophysical properties of zno-based ceramics gas sensor. therefore in this work,we report on the thermal diffusivity of zinc oxide-copper oxide (zno-cuo) ceramic composites by solid-state method using a laser flash technique. thermal diffusivity of samples was measured at temperatures between 27 °c to 400 °c. the role of cuo was observed to enhance the thermal diffusivity of zno system with respect to the temperatures. zno-cuo samples played a significant role in improvement of thermal diffusivity value at temperature of 200 °c and above. subsequently,sample of higher thermal diffusivity will exhibit lower initialization time for gas sensor to activate. hence,the enhanced thermal diffusivity suggested that zno-cuo composite samples hold a promising possibility in gas sensor application. © 2015,penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.