Synthesis of Nanocrystalline, Redispersable Antimony-Doped SnO2 Particles for the Preparation of Conductive, Transparent Coatings

Nanocrystalline, redispersable Sb-doped SnO2 with Sb contents from 0.1–10 mol% (with respect to Sn) and a primary particle size of about 5 nm was prepared from SnCl4 and SbCl3 in solution by a growth reaction. The aggregation of the particles was avoided by in situ surface modification with amino carbonic acids. The stabilizing effect of the surface modification could be maintained during the following hydrothermal crystallization step (150°C, 10 bar). The resulting nanocrystalline particles are fully redispersable in aqueous suspensions at pH ≥ 11; solid contents up to 40 wt% can be achieved.Such aqueous dispersions were used to prepare transparent, conductive coatings on glass by spin coating. After thermal densification (1 hour at 550°C) transparent coatings of 220 nm thickness were obtained. A minimum specific electrical resistance of 2.5 · 10−2 Ω cm for Sb contents between 4 and 5 mol% was measured, the transparency in the visible range against air was 90%.