High thermal performance of SnO2:F thin transparent heaters with scattered metal nanodots.

Facile production and novel transparent heaters consisting of fluorine-doped tin oxide (SnO2:F or FTO) thin films covered with three different scattered metal nanodots (Cr-nd, NiCr-nd and Ni-nd) prepared by plasma-enhanced sputtering system and electron cyclotron resonance-metal organic chemical vapor deposition are investigated. The heaters exhibit excellent optical transmittances of over 85% and superior saturated temperatures of more than 80 °C when a relatively low 12 V DC is supplied. The scattered metal nanodots FTO heaters successfully improve the specific power of bare FTO heater by 21, 15, and 12% for NiCr-nd FTO, Cr-nd FTO, and Ni-nd FTO, respectively. These results reveal that the FTO transparent heaters with scattered metal nanodots are the suitable heating materials that can be applied for various functional devices.