Transparent conducting aerogels of antimony-doped tin oxide

Bulk antimony-doped tin oxide aerogels are prepared by epoxide-initiated sol-gel processing. Tin and antimony precursors are dissolved in ethanol and water, respectively, and propylene oxide is added to cause rapid gelation of the sol, which is then dried supercritically. The Sb:Sn precursor mole ratio is varied from 0 to 30% to optimize the material conductivity and absorbance. The materials are characterized by electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), nitrogen physisorption analysis, a four-point probe resistivity measurement, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The samples possess morphology typical of aerogels without significant change with the amount of doping. Calcination at 450 °C produces a cassiterite crystal structure in all aerogel samples. Introduction of Sb at 15% in the precursor (7.6% Sb by XPS) yields a resistivity more than 3 orders of magnitude lower than an undoped SnO2 aerogel. Calcination at 800 °C reduces the resistivity by an additional 2 orders of magnitude to 30 Ω·cm, but results in a significant decrease in surface area and pore volume.