Densification of Doped Zinc Oxide Nanocrystal Films via Chemical Bath Infiltration

Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) hold great promise for the fabrication of thin film devices due to ability precisely control their properties and deposit coatings via solution-based protocols. The role interfaces, surface defects, (electrical) connectivity between NCs is a major bottleneck achieving desired performance. Here, novel method infiltrate densify nanocrystalline deposited from doped ZnO Ncs presented. Reduced porosity, enhanced connectivity, reduction in defects are observed, culminating vastly improved electrical conductivity. Doped processed into an ink used deposition. Bulky native ligands then removed promote better contact neighboring render surfaces hydrophilic. Afterward, modified chemical bath deposition (CBD) adopted slowly infill pores with pure controlled heterogeneous nucleation process. optimized CBD avoids excessive growth premature sealing surface, confirmed by combined spectroscopic morphological characterizations. resultant hybrid films demonstrate properties, conductivity increasing two orders magnitude after pore infiltration. These results pave way functional enriched interparticle communication.