Study of an organic-metallic SnO2 ink for electronic printing applications

Abstract

This work shows a way of achieving a semiconductor SnO2 film and its basic characterization. Two inks were prepared with dehydrated tin chloride diluted in 2-methoxyethanol, with and without acetic acid respectively. A third ink was also used, which had been previously prepared with dehydrated tin chloride with a different molar ratio without any other additive. These inks were annealed at 300, 370, 440, 530 and 600ºC, and were studied by the following techniques: TGA (Thermal gravimetric analysis), DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry), XRD (X-ray diffraction) and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Having done the thermal treatments, we examined the results provide by all experiments. TGA and DSC show the rate of the reactions when we heat up the ink. The obtained result is consistent with the theoretical deduction but this experiment is not able to differentiate between SnO and SnO2. XRD shows that we obtain crystalline SnO2, and with XPS results we conclude that we also have amorphous SnO.