Temperature dependent DC electrical conductivity studies of ZnO nanoparticle thick films prepared by simple solution combustion method

ZnO nanoparticles of different size were prepared by varying the molar ratio of glycine and zinc nitrate hexahydrate as fuel and oxidizer (F/O = 0.8, 1.11, 1.7) by simple solution combustion method. Powder samples were characterized by UV-Visible spectrophotometer, X-ray diffractometer, Scanning electron microscope (SEM). DC electrical conductivity measurements at room temperature and in the temperature range of 313-673K were carried out for the prepared thick films and it was found to increase with increase of temperature which confirms the semiconducting nature of the samples. Activation energies were calculated and it was found that, F/O molar ratio 1.7 has low EAL (Low temperature activation energy) and high EAH (High temperature activation energy) compared to other samples