Farbrication and characterization of flexible, transparent and self-standing Sb doped SnO₂ electrospun nanofiber films

Flexible, transparent and self-standing Sb doped SnO₂ (ATO) nanofiber films were successfully fabricated by means of a low-cost and scalable electrospinning process, with tin tetrachloride and antimony trichloride as precursors. The as-prepared ATO nanofiber films are typical interconnected nanofiber networks and show a single SnO₂ rutile crystal structures. With increasing the calcination temperature from 520 ℃ to 700 ℃, the average diameter of ATO nanofibers decrease from 200 nm to 150 nm, but accompanied by an increase in the average diameter of ATO nanoparticles. Meanwhile, the transmittance of the ATO nanofiber film increases from 72% to 80%, while their resistance decreases from 5.23 Ω·cm to 2.20 Ω·cm. Importantly, after 500 cycles of bending, the self-standing ATO nanofibers show no obvious electrical degradation. The ATO nanofiber films show promise for application in many fields, such as flexible liquid crystal displays, solar cells and flexible and transparent functional electronics.