Tuning the properties of F:SnO₂ (FTO) nanocomposites with S:TiO₂ nanoparticles – promising hazy transparent electrodes for photovoltaics applications

Abstract

Fabrication and innovative characterization of new hazy S:TiO2–FTO nanocomposites with lower Rs thanks to the conductive S:TiO2 nanoparticles.

Hazy Al2O3-FTO Nanocomposites: A Comparative Study with FTO-Based Nanocomposites Integrating ZnO and S:TiO2 Nanostructures

“…The main structural and electrical properties of flat FTOs have already been investigated and discussed in previous articles [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Similar to S:TiO 2 -FTO nanocomposites reported in [ 11 ], Al 2 O 3 -FTO nanocomposites also show two regions: rougher region A where the FTO film was deposited on larger nanoparticle agglomerates and semi-flat region B where small nanoparticle agglomerates are present, thus resulting in higher surface roughness than a reference flat FTO (cf. compare Figure 1 d,f with particular focus on the z-scale).…”

“…The structural texture of Al 2 O 3 -FTO nanocomposites remains almost constant with varying nanoparticle suspension concentration. Unlike the local epitaxy observed between S:TiO 2 nanoparticles and FTO in [ 11 ], the Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles does not seem to impose any restrictions on the growth of subsequent FTO thin films, resulting in a more random orientation of the FTO grains.…”

“…Figure 2 a shows the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness of Al 2 O 3 -FTO nanocomposites, which was calculated from AFM images (40 × 40 μm 2 with resolution of 40 nm per pixel) in the same manner as in [ 11 ]. The roughness of S:TiO 2 -FTO nanocomposites (as in [ 11 ]) and ZnO-FTO (recalculated in the same way as in this study to enable a fair comparison, and thus different from that of [ 10 ] are also plotted for comparison. With increasing nanoparticle suspension concentration, the RMS roughness of Al 2 O 3 -FTO nanocomposites increases, being comparable with that of ZnO-FTO nanocomposites and lower than that of S:TiO 2 -FTO nanocomposites.…”

“…In our previous work, we have proposed a simple and cost-effective two-step approach to grow highly diffusive F:SnO 2 -based nanocomposites by integrating ZnO and S:TiO 2 nanoparticles [ 10 , 11 ]. The obtained ZnO-FTO and S:TiO 2 -FTO nanocomposites exhibit superior haze factor (H T ) of more than 60%.…”

Transparent Heaters: A Review

“…The nonhazy FTO is the usual FTO layer deposited on a glass substrate, while the diffuse FTO was fabricated by depositing oxide nanoparticles (NPs) before FTO deposition. [ 59,95 ] The required haze factor values depend drastically upon the desired application. For displays or window defrosting, low haze values are mandatory.…”