Preparation of metal oxide thin films from organic-additive-free aqueous solutions by low-speed dip-coating

Abstract

Here we propose a novel coating technique with low-speed dip-coating for preparing metal oxide thin films from organic-additive-free aqueous solutions, where the film formation on the substrate is achieved via an evaporation-driven deposition during dip-coating of extremely low substrate withdrawal speeds below 1.0 cm min⁻¹ in a thermostatic oven at 25–60 °C. Transparent, crack-free SnO₂ and TiO₂ precursor films were obtained from SnCl₄ and TiOSO₄ aqueous solutions, respectively, by low-speed dip-coating. The precursor films thus obtained were crystallized to SnO₂ and TiO₂ films by the heat treatment at 700 °C for 10 min in air.