High-performance Sb:SnO2 Compact Thin Film Based on Surfactant-free and Binder-free Sb:Sn3O4 Suspension

Surfactant-free and binder-free antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) transparent conducting thin films were fabricated through spin coating and rapid annealing processes, in which nanosheets were assembled into a compact structure via self-contracting high pressure. The mechanism of this compact thin film formation was further proposed and analyzed. The compact ATO thin film had a low root mean square (RMS) roughness of 5.03 nm. This surfactant-free and binder-free compact ATO thin film delivered low resistivity of 3.04 × 10−2 Ω cm, stable resistivity which only increased 13% after exposing in 65% RH air for half a month, high transmittance of 92.70% at 550 nm, and high band gap energy of 4.07 eV. This effective strategy will provide new insight into the synthesis of low-cost and high-performance compact thin films.