A simple chemical spray pyrolysis apparatus for thin film preparation

摘要

Materials in thin film form such as opto-electronic devices, electrochromic devices, narrow band coating, temperature controllers in satellites, sensors etc. have attracted the attention due to their wide range of applications both in industry and in research. Techniques that are simple and economical have attracted attention for commercial and other reasons. The chemical spray pyrolysis (CSP) technique offers an extremely easy way to prepare films with dopants, virtually any element in any proportion by merely adding it in a spray solution. The deposition rate and thickness of the film can easily be controlled for a wide range. It also offers an opportunity to have reactions at low temperatures (100-500). These methods can also produce films on substrates that are less robust materials and on large surfaces. The versatile nature of this technique lies in the way various parameters that include effect of precursors, dopants, substrates temperature, in-situ annealing treatments, solution concentrations and so on can easily be controlled. Various types of metal oxide, metallic spinel oxide, binary and ternary chalcogenides and superconducting oxides can be prepared. The results obtained using a home built set up on materials like CdS and NiO, where in reasonably good results are obtained are discussed in detail.