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Chemical nanotechnology for transparent conducting coatings on thin‐glass and plastic‐foil substrates
Author(s) -
Puetz J.,
Aegerter M. A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of the society for information display
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1938-3657
pISSN - 1071-0922
DOI - 10.1889/1.1904934
Subject(s) - materials science , indium tin oxide , antistatic agent , tin oxide , thin film , foil method , nanoparticle , sheet resistance , oxide , nanotechnology , transparent conducting film , composite material , curing (chemistry) , tin , metallurgy , layer (electronics)
— The properties of wet‐deposited transparent conducting oxide coatings (TCO) prepared by sol‐gel and nanoparticle processing are presented, showing their potentials and limits for display applications. The electrical properties to a large extent are determined by their porous morphology and the resulting grain boundaries, leading to a conductivity which is a factor 10 to 50 lower compared to similar PVD and CVD coatings. Though sol‐gel coatings like antimony‐doped tin oxide (ATO) can be deposited at very low cost, they always require a high‐temperature heat treatment limiting the choice of substrate. For a low‐temperature curing of the coatings, instead, the use of crystalline conducting nanoparticles of indium tin oxide (ITO) in combination with a chemical binder offers considerable application potential. This processing not only allows the preparation of coatings with a sheet resistance of 1 to 2 kΩ/□ but also a direct patterning by a fast UV curing. Typical applications for wet‐deposited coatings are demonstrated including the adjustment of the properties of sputtered ITO coatings, as well as electrodes and antistatic properties on plastics substrates with a moderate conductivity in the lower kΩ/□ range.