Effect of dispersant agents on morphology and optical–electrical properties of nano indium tin oxide ink-jet ink

In this study, the effect of dispersant agents on rheology, surface tension, dynamic light scattering and morphology of two nano-ITO inks were investigated. The inks were formulated using two different dispersant agents and the rest of constituents remained unchanged. The inks were printed onto a glass substrate using an ink-jet printer. The printing task was set to one, three and five runs, in order to evaluate variations in optical and electrical properties, by changing the thickness of the printed film. Following initial drying of the printed pattern on to the substrate, the samples were subsequently heat-treated at different temperatures (350 °C, 450 °C, 550 °C) to assess the effect, if any, of heat-treatment temperature on morphology, optical and electrical properties of the treated ITO films. It was concluded that the type of dispersant, heat-treatment parameters and number of printing runs had a substantial effect on the electrical and optical properties of the ITO films.