Transparent heaters made by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis of nanograined SnO2 layers on soda-lime glass substrates

Abstract

Transparent heaters have become important owing to the increasing demand in automotive and display device manufacturing industries. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most commonly used material for the production of transparent heaters, but the fabrication cost is high as the indium resources are diminishing fast. This has been the driving force behind the intense research for discovering more durable and cost-effective alternatives. Tin oxide, with its high temperature stability and coexisting high levels of conductivity and transparency, can replace expensive ITO in the fabrication of transparent heaters. Here, we propose nanograined tin oxide films deposited using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis as the raw material for the fabrication of transparent heaters. Silver contacts are paste printed on the deposited SnO2 layers, which provide the necessary connections to the external circuitry. Deposition of films having sheet resistance in the 120 Ω □−1 range takes only ~5 min and the utilized methods are fully scalable to the mass production level. Durability tests, carried out for weeks of continuous operation at different elevated temperatures, demonstrated the long load life of the produced heaters.