Hazy Al2O3-FTO Nanocomposites: A Comparative Study with FTO-Based Nanocomposites Integrating ZnO and S:TiO2 Nanostructures
Résumé
In this study, we report the use of Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles in combination with fluorine doped tin oxide (F:SnO 2 , aka FTO) thin films to form hazy Al 2 O 3-FTO nanocomposites. In comparison to previously reported FTO-based nanocomposites integrating ZnO and sulfur doped TiO 2 (S:TiO 2) nanoparticles (i.e., ZnO-FTO and S:TiO 2-FTO nanocomposites), the newly developed Al 2 O 3-FTO nanocomposites show medium haze factor H T of about 30%, while they exhibit the least loss in total transmittance T tot. In addition, Al 2 O 3-FTO nanocomposites present a low fraction of large-sized nanoparticle agglomerates with equivalent radius r eq > 1 µm; effectively 90% of the nanoparticle agglomerates show r eq < 750 nm. The smaller feature size in Al 2 O 3-FTO nanocomposites, as compared to ZnO-FTO and S:TiO 2-FTO nanocomposites, makes them more suitable for applications that are sensitive to roughness and large-sized features. With the help of a simple optical model developed in this work, we have simulated the optical scattering by a single nanoparticle agglomerate characterized by bottom radius r 0 , top radius r 1 , and height h. It is found that r 0 is the main factor affecting the H T (λ), which indicates that the haze factor of Al 2 O 3-FTO and related FTO nanocomposites is mainly determined by the total surface coverage of all the nanoparticle agglomerates present.
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