Transparent conducting coatings using colloidal sols made of aluminium and gallium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles

Thin films of Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) using Aluminum and Galium doped Zinc Oxide (AZO and GZO) nanoparticulate suspension were doposited via simple wet chemichal deposition technique on borosilicate glass substrate. The electrical properties of the obtained films are competitive with similar layers made of tin doped indium oxide (ITO) suspension. GZO nanoparticles have smaller grain size and higher BET surface area than the AZO one. The GZO layers show better electrical conductivity than the AZO one, where a denser layer was obtained with higher charge carrier concentration and mobility. The obtained results are competitive to the reported result of tin doped indium oxide based on the similar method. Although the number of charge carriers of the metal doped zinc oxide layers are still not in a level to be replaced by ITO coatings, however it has larger charge carrier mobility, which is an emerging step to be developed to enhance the electrical conductivity of such cost effective materials. Both GZO and AZO layers exhibit a high transparency in the visible region for greater than 87%.