Microwave Assisted Synthesis and Processing of Novel Transparent Conducting Oxides.
Subhashi Jayathilake a, Darren Southee a, Upul Wijayantha a, Jagdeep Sagu a, Nirmal Peiris a
a Loughborough University, Epinal way, Loughborough, United Kingdom, LE11 3TU, Loughborough, United Kingdom
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV16)
Swansea, United Kingdom, 2016 June 29th - July 1st
Organizers: James Durrant, Henry Snaith and David Worsley
Poster, Subhashi Jayathilake, 174
Publication date: 28th March 2016

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) deposited on glass or flexible substrates are essential components in many electrochemical devices, such as electrochromic windows, solar cells, flat panel displays, sensors, and optical limiters. Tin doped In2O3 (ITO) and fluorine doped SnO2 (FTO) have become the most widely used TCOs in current industries as they have superior electrical and optical properties. Despite their popularity, these materials suffer from key issues including the high cost and scarcity of indium and difficulties in fabricating FTO at low temperatures. In an attempt to combat these issues, research has been focused on the development of novel TCO materials, low cost and low temperature thin film deposition methods and post-production processing technologies. In this study, novel TCO nanoparticles [i.e. Al, Ga co-doped ZnO (AGZO)] were synthesised via a microwave-assisted polyol synthesis route. This method brings significant cost improvements over standard production methods. Al and Ga dopant levels were systematically varied to find the optimum doping levels and the powders were pressed into pellets in order to measure the sheet resistance. The pellets were heat treated under microwave radiation to obtain a resistivity as low as 5.6 x 10-4 â„¦.cm. Drop-casted AGZO thin films showed optical transmittance of 75% (over the entire visible region) and sheet resistance (<500Ω/â–¡) after post-synthesis heat-treatment. Both films and pellets were characterised by XRD and SEM analysis. In future studies, these films will be used to construct solar cells and the device parameters will be compared against similar devices made on standard TCO substrates.

 



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