Hydrothermal synthesis of WO₃ film on rough surface to analyze methanol gas at room temperature

Abstract In this paper, we synthesized WO₃ thick films on a rough and smooth glass substrate by hydrothermal method and then heated to a temperature of 400-degree Celcius. Characteristic techniques such as XRD and SEM analysis were sequenced to determine the crystallite size and grain composition of the finished samples, respectively. We have discussed the results of the Rietveld refinement made using MAUD to determine useful information regarding the atomic sites, mesh parameters, and micro-stresses in the sample. Subsequently, FTIR analysis has been performed to note the critical bond vibrations associated with the material. AFM studies have also been included to determine the pore sizes and understand the surface-level differences between WO₃ films on rough and smooth substrates. The room temperature gas sensing mechanism was then discussed in the presence of humidity with methanol, ethanol, and benzene along with most of the targeted gases with different selective parameters at atmospheric pressure. We have tried to develop a theory incorporating the anomalous observation for the methanol gas sensing experiment and explained the future scope of this work.