In the present study, vanadium oxide(V2O5) films for electrochromic(EC) application are fabricated using sol-gel spin coating method. In order to optimize the EC performance of the V2O5 films, we adjust the amounts of polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP) added to the solution at 0, 5, 10, and 15 wt%. Due to the effect of added PVP on the V2O5 films, the obtained films show increases of film thickness and crystallinity. Compared to other samples, optimum weight percent(10 wt%) of PVP led to superior EC performance with transmittance modulation(45.43 %), responding speeds(6.0 s at colored state and 6.2 s at bleached state), and coloration efficiency(29.8 cm2/C). This performance improvement can be mainly attributed to the enhanced electrical conductivity and electrochemical activity due to the increased crystallinity and thickness of the V2O5 films. Therefore, V2O5 films fabricated with optimized amount of PVP can be a promising EC material for high-performance EC devices.

Sb-doped SnO2 (ATO) transparent conducting films are fabricated using horizontal ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (HUSPD) to form uniform and compact film structures with homogeneously supplied precursor solution. To optimize the molar concentration and transparent conducting performance of the ATO films using HUSPD, we use precursor solutions of 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, and 0.30 M. As the molar concentration increases, the resultant ATO films exhibit more compact surface structures because of the larger crystallite sizes and higher ATO crystallinity because of the greater thickness from the accelerated growth of ATO. Thus, the ATO films prepared at 0.25 M have the best transparent conducting performance (12.60±0.21 Ω/□ sheet resistance and 80.83% optical transmittance) and the highest figure-of-merit value (9.44±0.17 × 10-3 Ω-1). The improvement in transparent conducting performance is attributed to the enhanced carrier concentration by the improved ATO crystallinity and Hall mobility with the compact surface structure and preferred (211) orientation, ascribed to the accelerated growth of ATO at the optimized molar concentration. Therefore, ATO films fabricated using HUSPD are transparent conducting film candidates for optoelectronic devices.

Uniform TiO2 blocking layers (BLs) are fabricated using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD) method. To improve the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the BL thickness is controlled by using USPD times of 0, 20, 60, and 100 min, creating TiO2 BLs of 0, 40, 70, and 100 nm, respectively, in average thickness on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. Compared to the other samples, the DSSC containing the uniform TiO2 BL of 70 nm in thickness shows a superior power conversion efficiency of 7.58±0.20% because of the suppression of electron recombination by the effect of the optimized thickness. The performance improvement is mainly attributed to the increased open-circuit voltage (0.77±0.02 V) achieved by the increased Fermi energy levels of the working electrodes and the improved short-circuit current density (15.67±0.43 mA/cm2) by efficient electron transfer pathways. Therefore, optimized TiO2 BLs fabricated by USPD may allow performance improvements in DSSCs.

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated NiCrAl alloy foam is fabricated using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD). To confirm the influence of the FTO layer on the NiCrAl alloy foam, we investigated the structural, chemical, and morphological properties and chemical resistance by using USPD to adjust the FTO coating time (12, 18, and 24 min). As a result, when an FTO layer was coated for 24 min on NiCrAl alloy foam, it was found to have an enhanced chemical resistance compared to those of the other samples. This improvement in the chemical resistance of using USPD NiAlCr alloy foam can be the result of the existence of an FTO layer, which can act as a protection layer between the NiAlCr alloy foam and the electrolyte and also the result of the increased thickness of the FTO layer, which enhances the diffusion length of the metal ion.

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) were fabricated using solution-based ITO (Sn-doped In2O3) nanoinks with nanorods at an annealing temperature of 200 oC. In order to optimize their transparent conducting performance, ITO nanoinks were composed of ITO nanoparticles alone and the weight ratios of the nanorods to nanoparticles in the ITO nanoinks were adjusted to 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5. As a result, compared to the other TCOs, the ITO TCOs formed by the ITO nanoinks with weight ratio of 0.1 were found to exhibit outstanding transparent conducting performance in terms of sheet resistance (~102.3 Ω/square) and optical transmittance (~80.2%) at 550 nm; these excellent properties are due to the enhanced Hall mobility induced by the interconnection of the composite nanorods with the (440) planes of the short lattice distance in the TCOs, in which the presence of the nanorods can serve as a conducting pathway for electrons. Therefore, this resulting material can be proposed as a potential candidate for solution-based TCOs for use in optoelectronic devices requiring large-scale and low-cost processes.