Preparation and characterization of highly dispersed and crystallised ITO nanoparticles

Nanosized ITO particles with perfect crystallinity and dispersibility in the size range of 5–16 nm were prepared by heterogeneous nucleation combined with the coprecipitation method. The effect and mechanism of the calcination temperature on the microstructure, crystal composition and morphology were investigated and discussed. Results indicate that the nanoparticles were hexagonal structure of ITO solid solution (HS) at 500 °C. However, the nanoparticles were well dispersed and mostly had the cubic structure of ITO solid solution (CS) with little HS at 600-900 °C. The pinning effect resulting from the mixed structure of HS and CS on grain boundaries could impede the diffusion of atoms from one surface layer into another compared with the traditional single CS and hence reduce the aggregation of nanoparticles.