Carbon-dioxide as annealing atmosphere to retain the electrical properties of indium-tin oxide

•Method to hinder degrading electrical properties of Indium tin oxide transparent electrode.•Carbon-dioxide as an efficient annealing ambient.•Proposed ambient suppress formation of oxygen interstitials and reduce vacancy. In practical applications of indium-tin-oxide (ITO), annealing at temperatures ~400 °C without degrading its electrical and optical properties is an important challenge. In the present work, commercial Indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated on glass was subjected to post-annealing treatment in the range of 200–400 °C at different annealing atmospheres; oxygen, nitrogen and carbon-dioxide. The annealed samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV–visible spectroscopy and Hall measurements to evaluate the structural, optical and electrical properties. Both oxygen and nitrogen treated samples demonstrate degradation in structural, optical and conducting properties of ITO, while carbon-dioxide atmosphere inhibits the degradation of ITO at 400 °C. The obtained results suggest that carbon-dioxide can be well utilized as annealing ambient to retain opto-electronic and structural properties of ITO and thereby improve the efficiency of ITO based solar cells.