The characterization of copper oxide (CUO) for different oxygen flow rate during annealing / Muhammad Haniff Awang

In this research, Copper oxide (CuO) was used as the thin films on quartz substrates. Copper oxide is a compound from the two elements copper and oxygen. Copper (II) oxide or cupric oxide (CuO) is the higher oxide of copper. As a mineral, it is known as tenorite. The purpose of this project is to study the effect of different oxygen flow rate during annealing of CuO thin films. The CuO solution was formed by sol gel method by mixing the copper (II) acetate Cu(CH3COO)2 with isopropanol, diethanolamine and polyethylene glycol. Spin coating technique was used to deposit thin film. Five samples of CuO thin films were annealed in different oxygen flow rate at 600 C for 1 hour. The characterization process was performed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) to check their surface topology and surface profiler to check their thickness. The electrical properties were measured using two probe techniques. The optical properties were measured using UV-Vis spectrometer. All samples shows different characteristics depends on their oxygen flow rate during annealing. Sample five with 35sccm (Standard Cubic Centimeters per Minute) show the highest response to current when the voltage was changed compared to the other samples. In this research, the method used was sol gel method. The advantages of sol gel method are its ability to tune micro structure through sol gel chemistry and conformal deposition ability compared to other synthesis method. Spin coating is one the technique that involve in sol-gel method in order to deposit thin film on the substrates.