Si-doped zinc oxide transparent conducting oxides; nanoparticle optimisation, scale-up and thin film deposition

D P Howard,I P Parkin,C J Carmalt,J A Darr,P Marchand

doi:10.1039/c7tc02175e

D P Howard, I P Parkin + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1039/c7tc02175e

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Abstract

Si-doped ZnO was made by a continuous hydrothermal method and deposited by spin coating; ρ = 2.4 × 10−3 Ω cm, Tvis > 80%.

Highlights

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of interest in industry for a number of applications including smart windows,[1] solar cells,[2,3] flat panel displays,[4] organic light emitting diodes,[5] and touchscreens.[6]
The pre-eminent industry standard TCO material is indium tin oxide (ITO), and its widespread use in the abovementioned applications has led to an average annual indium consumption in the U.S alone in the range $63–82 M (4100 tonnes per annum) in the period 2004 to 2015;7 the increasing cost and lack of availability of indium has led to interest in more sustainable alternative transparent conducting oxide materials.[8]
continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis (CHFS) has already been used for the manufacture of selected well-defined TCO nanomaterials such as ITO,[31] AZO,[32] GZO,[32] and AGZO33; these reports demonstrated that a pilot plant scale-up CHFS process of TCO nanopowders was capable of maintaining good electrical properties of the materials when tested as heat-treated pellets when compared to the equivalent smaller lab-scale process

Summary

Introduction

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of interest in industry for a number of applications including smart windows,[1] solar cells,[2,3] flat panel displays,[4] organic light emitting diodes,[5] and touchscreens.[6].

Results

Conclusion