Nanostructured cobalt manganese ferrite thin films for gas sensor application

Ferrite compounds are very important because of their optical, electrical or magnetic properties. Moreover, many papers relate to their development as possible gas sensor. In this study, we were interested in using cobalt-manganese-ferrite as sensitive layer for CO2 sensor devices. Such an application required a high surface activity, and consequently a small crystallite size and a large surface area. The physical vapor deposition (RF-sputtering) is widely used for thin film synthesis. In this work, porous thin films were obtained from a Co1Mn0.65Fe1.35O4 target sputtered under pure argon plasma, by optimizing the deposition parameters (gas pressure, power). The deposition time was adjusted in order to obtain an average thickness of 300 nm. Structural (G-XRD) and microstructural (SEM-FEG, gas adsorption, electron microprobe) analyses were carried out on these thin films. The chemical composition was found to be homogeneous on the whole surface of the samples. The grain size ranged from 10 to 25 nm. The surface enhancement factor (SEF) was about 100 m2/m2, which is equivalent to a specific surface area of 76 m2/g for the ferrite layer. In conclusion, these nanostructured cobalt-manganese-ferrite films appear to be quite suitable for an application as gas sensors