title: Nearly full-dense and fine-grained AZO:Y ceramics sintered from the corresponding nanoparticles.
abstract: Aluminum-doped zinc oxide ceramics with yttria doping (AZO:Y) ranging from 0 to 0.2 wt.% were fabricated by pressureless sintering yttria-modified nanoparticles in air at 1,300°C. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, a physical property measurement system, and a densimeter were employed to characterize the precursor nanoparticles and the sintered AZO ceramics. It was shown that a small amount of yttria doping can remarkably retard the growth of the as-received precursor nanoparticles, further improve the microstructure, refine the grain size, and enhance the density for the sintered ceramic. Increasing the yttria doping to 0.2 wt.%, the AZO:Y nanoparticles synthetized by a coprecipitation process have a nearly sphere-shaped morphology and a mean particle diameter of 15.1 nm. Using the same amount of yttria, a fully dense AZO ceramic (99.98% of theoretical density) with a grain size of 2.2 μm and a bulk resistivity of 4.6 × 10-3 Ω·cm can be achieved. This kind of AZO:Y ceramic has a potential to be used as a high-quality sputtering target to deposit ZnO-based transparent conductive films with better optical and electrical properties.
authors.affiliation: Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science, No, 519, Zhuangshi Road, Zhenhai District, Ningbo, 315201, People's Republic of China. weijiesong@nimte.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Pinjun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Muqin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tiefeng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Ruiqin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Weijie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Song