Transparent conductive thin films

Y. Wang and X. Jing, Transparent conductive thin films based on polyanihne nanofibers, Mater. Sci. Eng. B, 138, 95-100 (2007). 

Transparent conducting thin films are used in numerous applications such as solar cells, displays, commxmication devices, LED, etc. Highly conductive SWCNT films show transmittance comparable or higher than the commercial indium-tin-oxide (ITO) used to fabricate transparent conducting films. Wu et al. have used ultrathin transparent conducting films of CNTs as optical coupling in photonic devices to fabricate an electric field-activated optical modulator [181]. 

Phillips HM, Li Y, Bi X, Zhang B (1996) Reactive pulsed laser deposition and laser induced crystallization of SnO transparent conducting thin films. Appl Phys A 63 347-351 Pique A, Auyeung RCY, Stepnowsk JL, Weir DW, Arnold CB, McGiU RA, Chrisey DB (2003) Laser processing of polymer thin films for chemical sensor applications. Surf Coat Technol 163-164 293-299 Randhaw H (1991) Review of plasma-assisted deposition processes. Thin Solid Films 196 329-349 Risti M, Ivanda M, Popovi S, Musi S (2002) Dependence of nanocrystaUine SnO particle size on synthesis route. J Non-Crystal Solids 303 270-280... 

Carroll, D.L., Czerw, R., and Webster, S. (2005) Polymer-nanotube composites for transparent, conducting thin films. Synthetic Metals, 155, 694-697. 

So far, only insulating ATR-SECM substrates (ATR crystals) have been used. However, ATR-SECM conducting substrates could, in principle, be fabricated by coating ATR crystals with mid-IR transparent conducting thin films (such as diamond-like films). Combining ATR-SECM with AFM for simultaneous in situ studies on topography, IR spectroscopy, and electrochemical processes is also contemplated [159]. 

V. Scardaci, J. Joimel, J. N. Coleman, Transparent, flexible, and highly conductive thin films based on polymer-nanotube composites, ACS Nano, vol. 3, pp. 714-720, 2009. 

W. Beyer, J. Hiipkes, H. Stiebig, Transparent conducting oxide films for thin film silicon photovoltaics. to be published at ICMCTF, San Diego (2007)... 

At the same time, SWNT can be used at the top electrode (that needs to be transparent) as a replacement for the currently used thin films that are also electrical conductors. Typical conductive thin films used today are oxides such as fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), Al-doped zinc oxide, and the indium tin oxide (ITO) mentioned above. The disadvantages of these oxide films are that they require expensive deposition procedures at high vacuum, they have poor mechanical properties, and they are not transparent in the infrared. Another interesting difference is that transparent oxide conductors are n-type semiconductors. By contrast, nanotube networks act as p-type semiconductors, which could lead to new designs. 

Hu L, Yuan W, Brochu P, Gruner G, Pei Q (2009) Highly stretchable, conductive, and transparent nanotube thin films. Appl Phys Lett 94 161108... 

Minami, T., Sato, H., Nanto, H., Takata, S. (1989). Heat treatment in hydrogen gas and plasma for transparent conducting oxide films such as ZnO, SnCh and indium tin oxide. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 176, pp. 277-282. 

Vollmer A, Feng XL, Wang X, Zhi LJ, Muellen K, Koch N, Rabe JP (2009) Electronic and structural properties of graphene-based transparent and conductive thin film electrodes. Appl Phys A Mater Sci Process 94 1-4... 

Y. Leterrier, L. Medico, F. Demarco, J. A. E. Manson, M. Escola Figuera, M. Kharazzi Olson and U. Betz, Mechanical Integrity of Transparent Conductive Oxide Film for Flexible Polymer based Displays, submitted to Thin Solid Films. 

As shown above, thiophene-based polymers can have several different side chains and thus different characteristics. An important polymer for PSC based on thiophene is PEDOT PSS which functions as an ETL as described above. PEDOT PSS was developed in the late 1980s at Bayer AG laboratories to be a soluble conducting polymer which did not have undesirable couplings such as a-P or p p [12]. Without the counterion, the polymer was highly crystalline, insoluble, and brittle, but it formed a transparent oxidized thin film that showed a conductivity of 300 S/cm. To ensure solubility, the polymer was prepared with a counterion, and this also resulted in highly conductive films, which were highly transparent and showed high stability [12, 81]. 

Sreeja R, Najidha S, Quamara JK, Predeep P. Development of transparent flexible condncting thin films by in-situ dispersion polymerization of pyrrole (DBS A) in pre-vulcanized nr latex development of transparent flexible conducting thin films by in-situ dispersion polymerization of pyrrole (DBSA) in pre-vulcanized NR latex. Mater Manuf Process 2007 22 384-387. 

Domingues SH, Salvatierra RV, Oliveira MM, Zarbin AJG (2011) Transparent and conductive thin films of graphene/polyaniline nanocomposites prepared through interfacial polymerization. Chem Commun 47 2592-2594... 

Polyaniline (PANI) can be formed by electrochemical oxidation of aniline in aqueous acid, or by polymerization of aniline using an aqueous solution of ammonium thiosulfate and hydrochloric acid. This polymer is finding increasing use as a "transparent electrode" in semiconducting devices. To improve processibiHty, a large number of substituted polyanilines have been prepared. The sulfonated form of PANI is water soluble, and can be prepared by treatment of PANI with fuming sulfuric acid (31). A variety of other soluble substituted AJ-alkylsulfonic acid self-doped derivatives have been synthesized that possess moderate conductivity and allow facile preparation of spincoated thin films (32). 

Electronic conductivity of thin-film solid electrolytes. Besides having low electronic transference numbers, it is essential for thin films of the order of 1 jim that the magnitude of the electronic resistance is low in order to prevent self-discharge of the battery. For this reason, specific electronic resistances in the range of 1012-1014 Qcm are required for thin-film solid electrolytes. Often the color may be a valuable indication of the electronic conductivity. In this regard, solid electrolytes should preferably be transparent white [20]. 

Successful electrodeposition of Sb2To3 has been reported for the first time by Leimkiihler et al. [229] who prepared polycrystalline thin films of the material on different transparent conductive oxides, as well as CdTe and Mo, from uncomplexed solutions made by mixing stock solutions of SbCb, Te02, and phthalate buffer (pH 4). The electrochemical process was discussed in detail based on results obtained by cyclic voltammetry on ITO/glass. The bath temperature was found to influence... 

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