High dielectric constant PrYxOy sensing films electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor pH-sensor for the detection of urea Original Research Article

In this paper, we describe the structural and sensing properties of high-k PrYxOy sensing films deposited on Si substrates through reactive co-sputtering. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and atomic force microscopy were employed to analyze the compositional and morphological features of these films after annealing at various temperatures. The electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) device incorporating a PrYxOy sensing membrane that had been annealed at 800 °C exhibited good sensing characteristics, including a high sensitivity (59.07 mV pH−1 in solutions from pH 2 to 12), a low hysteresis voltage (2.4 mV in the pH loop 7 → 4 → 7 → 10 → 7), and a small drift rate (0.62 mV h−1 in the buffer solution at pH 7). The PrYxOy EIS device also showed a high selective response towards H+. This improvement can be attributed to the small number of crystal defects and the large surface roughness. In addition, the enzymatic EIS-based urea biosensor incorporating a high-k PrYxOy sensing film annealed at 800 °C allowed the potentiometric analysis of urea, at concentrations ranging from 1 to 16 mM, with a sensitivity of 9.59 mV mM−1.