Evaporation-Driven Deposition of ITO Thin Films from Aqueous Solutions with Low-Speed Dip-Coating Technique

We suggest a novel wet coating process for preparing indium tin oxide (ITO) films from simple solutions containing only metal salts and water via evaporation-driven film deposition during low-speed dip coating. Homogeneous ITO precursor films were deposited on silica glass substrates from the aqueous solutions containing In(NO3)(3)center dot 3H(2)O and SnCl4 center dot 3H(2)O by dip coating at substrate withdrawal speeds of 0.20-0.50 cm min(-1) and then crystallized by the heat treatment at 500-800 degrees C for 10-60 min under N-2 gas flow of 0.5 L min(-1). The ITO films heated at 600 degrees C for 30 min had a high optical transparency in the visible range and a good electrical conductivity. Multiple-coating ITO films obtained with five-times dip coating exhibited the lowest sheet (rho(s)) and volume (rho(v)) resistivities respectively of 188 Omega sq(-1) and 4.23 X 10(-3) Omega cm, respectively.