Study of titanium nitride for low-e coating application

Abstract

The paper reports our novel work on chemical vapor deposition coating of titanium nitride (TiN) thin film on glass for energy saving. TiN films were deposited on glass substrates by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) using titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and ammonia (NH3) as precursors. As a result, TiN films with a thickness of 500 nm were obtained. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), four-point probe method and optical spectroscopy were respectively employed to study the crystallization, microstructure, surface morphology, electrical and optical properties of the coated TiN films. The deposited TiN films are of NaCl structure with a preferred (200) orientation. The particles in the film are uniform. The reflectivity of the TiN coating in the near-infrared (NIR) band can reach over 40%, the visible transmittance is approximately 60%, and the visible reflectivity is lower than 10%. The sheet electrical resistance is 34.5 Ω. According to Drude theory, the lower sheet resistance of 34.5 Ω gives a high reflectivity of 71.5% around middle-far infrared band. The coated films exhibit good energy-saving performance.