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Frontiers of Materials Science

ISSN 2095-025X

ISSN 2095-0268(Online)

CN 11-5985/TB

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Front. Mater. Sci.    2015, Vol. 9 Issue (2) : 126-131    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-015-0295-7
MINI-REVIEW
Soft chemistry based sponge-like indium tin oxide (ITO) ---- a prospective component of photoanode for solar cell application
Prasanta Kumar BISWAS(),Nilanjana DAS
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247 667, Uttarakhand, India
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Abstract

Previously we reported the synthesis of novel organic-inorganic composite indium tin oxide (ITO) foam precursor leading to the formation of “sponge-like” ITO by burning away the organics. This newly made sponge-like ITO possesses relatively high electrical conductivity due to phonon confinement with reasonable pore structure and may have potential application as functional materials in semiconducting dye absorbing layer in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and also as the receptor of electrons injected from the quantum dots (QDs) of organic--inorganic hybrid QD based solar cell. This report is a short review of “sponge-like” ITO described as a lecture note on its future use as an alternative new prospective material for photoanode of solar cell in the domain of sustainable energy.
Keywords sponge-like indium tin oxide (ITO)      sol--gel ITO      nanoporous ITO      smoke like ITO film      indium nitrate-PVA foam     
Corresponding Author(s): Prasanta Kumar BISWAS   
Online First Date: 24 April 2015    Issue Date: 23 July 2015
 Cite this article:   
Prasanta Kumar BISWAS,Nilanjana DAS. Soft chemistry based sponge-like indium tin oxide (ITO) ---- a prospective component of photoanode for solar cell application[J]. Front. Mater. Sci., 2015, 9(2): 126-131.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/10.1007/s11706-015-0295-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/Y2015/V9/I2/126
Fig.1  Schematic representation of the working of DSSC.
Fig.2  Representation of the drawback of TiO2 as semiconducting oxide in DSSC leading to the exploration of the alternative oxide material, ZnO.
Fig.3  Representation of the drawback of ZnO as semiconducting oxide in DSSC leading to the exploration of the new alternative oxide material, “sponge-like” ITO.
Fig.4  Photograph of composite foam (I-100). (Reproduced with permission from Ref. [3], Copyright 2014 American Scientific Publishers)
Fig.5  (a) TEM image of I-100 and (b) magnified portion of the periphery of (a) to highlight the thick carbon shell. (c) FESEM (inset, higher magnification) and (d) TEM images of the I-400 showing “sponge-like” feature. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. [3], Copyright 2014 American Scientific Publishers)
Fig.6  Proposed unit cell structure of (a) I-100 and (b) I-400. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. [3], Copyright 2014 American Scientific Publishers)
Fig.7  (a) Cross-sectional FESEM image of ITO film heated at 400°C (ITO-400) obtained from the same precursor sol of composite ITO foam. (b) Transmission spectra of ITO-400. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. [4], Copyright 2012 Springer Publishing Company)
Fig.8  Schematic representation of HOMO-LUMO levels of Dye, TiO2, ZnO and ITO. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. [3], Copyright 2014 American Scientific Publishers)
Material Crystal structure Energy band gap /eV Electron mobility /(cm2?V-1?s-1) Pore diameter /nm Electrical conductivity /(S?cm-1) Cluster size /nm
“Sponge-like” ITO [3-5] cubic [4] 3.6-3.7 [5] 0.22 [4] 10-30 [3] 10-1-103 [4] 10-50 [4]
TiO2 [8-10] rutile, anatase, and brookite [8] 3.0-3.2 [8] 0.1-4.0 [8] 15-20 [9] 10-9-10-8 [10] 10-30 [9]
ZnO [11-12] rocksalt, zinc blende, and wurtzite [11] 3.2-3.3 [11] 205-300 (bulk ZnO), 1000 (single nanowire) [11] 15-25 [12] 10-1-103 [11] 10-40 [12]
Tab.1  A comparative statement of physical properties of TiO2, ZnO and ITO
Fig.9  UV-VIS absorption spectra of undoped and doped ITO films highlighting red shifting in absorption behavior.
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