Abstract
Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films with low resistivity and high transparency in the visible light region have been prepared on flexible plastic films by a deposition method using water mist containing ITO nanoparticles (NPs) under atmospheric conditions. The ITO NP-mist was generated by ultrasonic irradiation of a water dispersion. Our developed protrusion-rich ITO NPs were applied as the ITO NPs. The ITO NPs show high dispersion stability in water without the use of any dispersant. Comparison investigations revealed that utilization of the ITO NPs played a critical role in fabricating high-performance ITO thin films on flexible films, and the resistivity reached 9.0 × 10−3 Ω cm. The system could be expected to provide promising advances in the development of a mild and sustainable fabrication procedure for ITO thin films under mild atmospheric conditions without the use of expensive vacuum production systems or harmful and environmentally undesirable chemicals.
Highlights
Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films with low resistivity and high transparency in the visible light region have been prepared on flexible plastic films by a deposition method using water mist containing ITO nanoparticles (NPs) under atmospheric conditions
For the Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) NPs, we recently reported that solvothermally prepared single-crystalline cubic-shaped[38,39,40] and protrusion-rich indium tin oxide (ITO)[41] NPs show low resistivity
From the HR-TEM images exhibited in Fig. 1c (i)-(iii), clear and uniform fringes corresponding to basically single-crystalline crystal structures were seen for all the NPs, especially P1 and P2, which have protrusion-rich rough surfaces
Summary
Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films with low resistivity and high transparency in the visible light region have been prepared on flexible plastic films by a deposition method using water mist containing ITO nanoparticles (NPs) under atmospheric conditions. The reason is due to the high resistivity of the GZO NP powder compacts (3.0 × 1 02 Ω cm) used for the deposition These results strongly prompted us to use TCO NPs with low resistivity, which might emphasize the advantages of the deposition method because a heat-treatment-less process is readily applicable to the preparation of TCO thin films on flexible films under atmospheric conditions. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation measurements revealed that such high dispersion stability in water could be due to the shape-triggered increase in the hydrophilicity of the surfaces of the ITO NPs41 This property might be positively applicable to the mist deposition method using water dispersions of ITO NPs. Here, we report the application of solvothermally prepared singlecrystalline protrusion-rich ITO NPs with different tin doping amounts to the ITO NP-mist deposition method for the fabrication of ITO thin films on flexible films under atmospheric conditions at room temperature and normal pressure. The NP-mist deposited ITO thin films exhibit low resistivity and high transparency in the visible light region on flexible films, and the resulting films could be applicable for practical use as TCO electrodes
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