Material, Electrical and Optical Analyses of Electrodeposited Electrochromatic NiO Film with Heat Treatment

Abstract

In this study, we propose two-step method of electrochemical deposition and heat treatment to fabricate electrochromic NiO films. A precursor NiO film was electro-deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). Then, the deposited film was crystallized with heat treatment. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to examine the crystalline structure and scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyze the surface morphologyfor the film in different deposition and heat treatment conditions. Moreover, the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and optical performance of the film was evaluated. Based on multiple material and optical analysis, the film grown with plating solution with a pH value of 8.0 treated by heat treatment at 500ºC was the most desirable electro chromatic film. The fabricated NiO electrochromic film shows promise for use in future device applications.