The article entitled “Synthesis and Electrical Characterization of the Polymorphic Indium Tin Oxide Nanocrystalline Powders” received the Edward C. Henry Award from the American Ceramic Society for the best Electronics Division paper in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society during 2006. The paper was a result of a collaboration between the Northwestern University MRSEC and the Kyungpook National University in Korea.
The researchers used a co-precipitation process to make nano-powders of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), a technologically important transparent conducting oxide in both the standard cubic and the metastable rhombohedral phases. The “powder-solution-composite” (PSC) method developed by the Mason group was utilized to measure the conductivity of the two ITO phases in loose powder form. In the PSC method, pressed compacts of nanopowders are infiltrated with aqueous solutions of varying salt contents (and conductivities) and AC-impedance spectra are measured to determine the conductivities of both cubic and rhombohedral ITO powders. This is the first known report for the conductivity of the rhombohedral ITO phase.
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