Dispersion and microwave processing of nano-sized ITO powder for the fabrication of transparent conductive oxides

作者：Ghanizadeh S^*; Peiris T A Nirmal; Jayathilake D S Y; Hutt D A; Wijayantha K G U; Southee D J; Conway P P; Marchand P; Darr J A; Parkin I P; Carmalt C J

来源：Ceramics International, 2016, 42(16): 18296-18302.

DOI：10.1016/j.ceramint.2016.08.157

• Nanoparticles
• Thin films
• Indium/Indium compounds
• Transparent conducting oxides
• Dispersants/Dispersion

Aqueous dispersions of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanopowder were prepared and the effect of the addition of PEG 400, Tween 80 and beta-alanine as dispersants was investigated using zeta potential and particle size distribution measurements. Both PEG 400 and beta-alanine were found to produce stable dispersions that were used to deposit ITO thin films on glass substrates by dip and spin coating methods. The ITO thin films were heat-treated using both conventional and microwave heat treatment in order to improve the inter-particle connections and hence the resistivity and transparency of the films. All the films exhibited an average transmittance of > 80% over the visible spectrum after being subjected to the heat treatment process. ITO films prepared with no dispersant showed very high resistivity values for both heating methods, however addition of 2 wt% PEG 400 to the dispersion yielded a reduction in the resistivity values to 1.4 x 10(-1) Omega cm and 3.8 x 10(-2) Omega cm for conventionally and microwave treated films, respectively. The surface morphological studies confirmed that addition of dispersants improved the film uniformity and inter-particle connections of the ITO films considerably.

• 出版日期2016-12