Delayed ignition of autocatalytic combustion precursors: low-temperature nanomaterial binder approach to electronically functional oxide films.
Delayed ignition of combustion synthesis precursors can significantly lower metal oxide film formation temperatures. From bulk In(2)O(3) precursor analysis, it is shown here that ignition temperatures can be lowered by as much as 150 °C. Thus, heat generation from ~60 nm thick In(2)O(3) films is sufficient to form crystalline In(2)O(3) films at 150 °C. Furthermore, we show that the low processing temperatures of sufficiently thick combustion precursor films can be applied to the synthesis of metal oxide nanocomposite films from nanomaterials overcoated/impregnated with the appropriate combustion precursor. The resulting, electrically well-connected nanocomposites exhibit significant enhancements in charge-transport properties vs conventionally processed oxide films while maintaining desirable intrinsic electronic properties. For example, while ZnO nanorod-based thin-film transistors exhibit an electron mobility of 10(-3)-10(-2) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), encasing these nanorods within a ZnO combustion precursor-derived matrix enhances the electron mobility to 0.2 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). Using commercially available ITO nanoparticles, the intrinsically high carrier concentration is preserved during nanocomposite film synthesis, and an ITO nanocomposite film processed at 150 °C exhibits a conductivity of ~10 S cm(-1) without post-reductive processing.
Department of Chemistry and the Materials Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Myung-Gil
MG
Kim
Jonathan W
JW
Hennek
Hyun Sung
HS
Kim
Mercouri G
MG
Kanatzidis
Antonio
A
Facchetti
Tobin J
TJ
Marks