Laser techniques such as pulsed laser deposition, combinatorial pulsed laser deposition, and matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation were used to deposit thin films for optoelectronic applications. High-quality transparent conductor oxide films ITO, AZO, and IZO were deposited on polyethylene terephthalate by PLD, an important experimental parameter being the target-substrate distance. The TCO films present a high transparency (>95%) and a reduced electrical resistivity (5 × 10−4 Ωcm) characteristics very useful for their integration in the flexible electronics. InxZn1−xO films with a compositional library were obtained by CPLD. These films are featured by a high optical transmission (>95%), the lowest resistivity (8.6 × 10−4 Ωcm) being observed for an indium content of about 44–49 at.%. Organic heterostructures based on arylenevinylene oligomers (P78 and P13) or arylene polymers (AMC16 and AMC22) were obtained by MAPLE. In the case of ITO/P78/Alq3/Al heterostructures, a higher current value is obtained when the film thickness increases. Also, a photovoltaic effect was observed for heterostructures based on AMC16 or AMC22 deposited on ITO covered by a thin layer of PEDOT:PSS. Due to their optical and electrical properties, such organic heterostructures can be interesting for the organic photovoltaic cells (OPV) applications.
Part of the book: Nanoscaled Films and Layers
ZnO-based nanostructures emerge as promising materials due to their potential applications in fields including electronic devices, photodetectors, photocatalysts, biocides, etc. The bio-template-mediated synthesis is a straightforward approach for obtaining inorganic or hybrid organic/inorganic materials with tailored morphologies and functional properties. Eco-friendly waste, eggshell membrane (ESM) is an ideal bio-template for the development of 3D hierarchical porous architectures due to its specific 3D interlaced fiber protein network structure. Therefore, this chapter is focused on the ESM-mediated synthesis of 3D fibrous architectures based on ZnO, the ESM organic network being functionalized with inorganic nanostructures or replicated into an inorganic one as follows: i) coated with ZnO layer by RF magnetron sputtering, (ii) covered with ZnO by electroless deposition and (iii) replicated into ZnO web by biomorphic mineralization. The obtained ZnO shows wurtzite structure, band-gap value and emission bands typical for this semiconductor. The electrical properties of the ZnO fiber webs were measured using interdigitated metallic electrodes patterned substrates. The ESM conversion from a bio-waste into new value-added nanomaterials is very attractive from the sustainability and recycle waste perspective, the ZnO-based fibrous architectures featured by a large specific surface area having potential applications in water purification, photocatalysis or chemical sensors areas.
Part of the book: Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles - Fundamentals and Applications [Working title]