Ultrafiltration conducting membranes and coatings from redispersable, nanoscaled, crystalline SnO2:Sb particles

Abstract

Inorganic membranes prepared by the sol-gel method are promising candidates for use as filters in separation processes. Conducting supported membranes and coatings have been produced from redispersable nanoscaled crystalline Sb-doped SnO ₂ powders with Sb contents up to 10 mol%. The crystalline particles (ca. 4 nm) are fully redispersable in aqueous solution at pH≥8 with a solid content up to 37 vol.% and are monosized. After thermal treatment at different temperatures and times, the pore size diameter of such a powder can be adjusted from 4-20 nm with a very narrow pore size distribution (ca. ±1 nm) and a total porosity of 63%, practically independent of the sintering parameters. Uniaxial compacted substrates (unsupported membranes) present similar characteristics but with a larger pore size distribution (±5 nm) and 80% total porosity. Their electrical resistance decreases with sintering temperature and time to 4 Ω (800 °C, 8 h). Crack free transparent conducting coatings on glasses and ceramics have been obtained by spin-coating using fully dispersed aqueous solutions of the powder with volume content up to 7.8%. After thermal treatment (1 h at 550 °C) single layers 200 nm thick are still porous and exhibit specific electrical resistivity as low as ρ=2.5×10 ^–2 Ω cm with 90% transmission in the visible range.