Electrical characterization of printed ITO films fabricated on biodegradable plastic substrate

Abstract

For fabricating hazardous and noxious substance (HNS) sensors based on biodegradable plastics, we printed indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films and analyzed their electrical and structural properties. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine the heat treatment temperature by investigating the glass transition temperature of the poly lactic acid (PLA) substrate. Also, the films were fabricated by introducing a film-surface treatment process. The structural and the electrical properties of the fabricated film were compared with those for sputtered ITO films by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Hall effect measurements. The grain size of the printed ITO (P-ITO) was calculated to be 37.4 nm, the carrier concentration was 4.35 × 1018 cm？ 3 and the mobility was 1.43 cm2/Vs at 300 K. The conductivity of the ITO film was limited by grain boundary scattering, and the resistivity of the ITO film varied due to thermal excitation of carriers trapped at the grain boundary. ？ 2020 The Korean Physical Society. All rights reserved.