Synthesis of high-quality Al-doped ZnO nanoink

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized via the thermal decomposition of metal acetylacetonate precursors in a nonoxygen and nonpolar solvent. Long-chain alkyl amines have been utilized to terminate the growth of AZO NPs and to stabilize them. The NPs have been characterized by a number of techniques as monocrystalline, exhibiting a hexagonal (wurtzite) structure with sizes from 8 to 13 nm. The composition of Al in the resulting NP is related solely to the composition of the reaction mixture and the size is controllable with the temperature of the reaction. The AZO NP dispersion has been proven to be stable over a 24 h period by dynamic light scattering measurements. The influence of the synthetic conditions, such as temperature, reaction time and the Al doping content, on the properties of NPs have also been investigated. An optically transparent AZO thin film was fabricated using the AZO nanoink by spin casting followed by annealing. The resulting film resistivity was measured to be 5.0× 10-3 ωcm. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.