Nanocrystalline antimony-doped tin oxide films prepared by sol-gel

Abstract

Antimony-doped tin oxide films were prepared by sol-gel technique from an ethanolic solution of SnCl4.5H2O and SbCl3. The effect of the addition of acetylacetone as a hydrolysis modifier was investigated. Structural, optical and electrical properties of the films were studied by XRD, FESEM, TEM, FTIR, UV-vis, TG and Hall effect measurements. TEM results showed that antimony-doped tin oxide films consist of well-crystallized grains ranging from 5 to 10 nm. It was found that the addition of the acetylacetone influences positively the film properties. The appropriate addition of acetylacetone allowed for the preparation of films with an optical transmittance as high as 97% in the visible region and 47% at 200 nm. Highly transparent films prepared in this study exhibit an electrical resistivity of 10-3 Ω cm which make them attractive for photovoltaic cell applications.