Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Make ITO Conductive Glass Simply
Q. I'm a student working with a rather big project about thinfilm coating on glass with indium oxide doped with tin.
I'm wondering if anybody could help me with information or links to information about his subject? I and my two group members are supposed to build a small scale equipment with which we shall coat glass with a technique could "dip and burn".
Thanks in advance
Have an excellent day
Royal Institute of technology - Stockholm Sweden
1999
A. There is so much written on this subject in the past three decades you will not believe it. Look into "solar cell" topic on the net somewhere. Find patents on patent servers! Your best bet would be "spray pyrolysis" or "Dip Coat and dry" for a lab project at low cost. It all depends on how uniform and what transparency you are looking for.
Mandar Sunthankar- Fort Collins, Colorado
1999
Q. I am a research assistant at Osmangazi University in Turkey. I am working on obtaining thin semiconductor films on glass substrates by Spray Pyrolysis Method. I need some informations about thinfilms and Spray Pyrolysis Method. Is there anyone help me? Thanks in advence.
Idris AkyuzOsmangazi University - Eskisehir,TURKEY
2000
A. You can find lot of literature in the journal Thin Solid Film. ITO films of good optical and electrical properties have been prepared by Spray Pyrolysis and AACVD. AACVD means aersol assisted CVD. Here the droplets are very fine in comparison to SP. One can get such layers by Dip Coating and spin coating methods too.
Harish BishtHCl - India
2001
Q. I am an administrator in faculty of science, Cairo university. I am interested on thinfilm prepared by spray pyrolysis process and I have some interest in solgel tech. Maybe in contact we will help each other.
Ahmad NajiFaculty of Science - Beni Suif, Eqypt
2002
A. An answer to your question is a product called Heat Mirror Film by Southwall Technology, a thin glazing film impregnated with indium oxide. The film can be applied on the glass surface as a laminate or suspended between the insulated glass unit.
Paul Langer- South Carolina, USA
2003
Multiple threads merged: please forgive chronology errors :-)
Plating on to Glass
Q. My name is Jon Anderson and I'm a glass blower from Minnesota. I just got a Mcnight Foundation grant to work on Electroplating Hand Blown Glass.
What I have been using in the past for my conductive substrate is a silver paint that has been very expensive .What I'm looking for is something I can use for my conductive surface to plate on that will be less expensive ,able to brush on and if possible something that will adhere better to the glass then the silverdag has.
So far what I've done is just added MIBK to a copper conductive powder. I've painted it onto glass and tried to see if it was conductive by using a Ohm meter , It didn't seem to be but the supplier has assured me that when it is put in the plating tank that it will work? I guess what I'm looking for is some suggestions on, well anything that you may have to offer.
Thank you very much
- Zimmerman Minnesota
2000
A. Yes, there are some alternatives to Electrodag. Another technology you might look into is ITO (indium tin oxide) -- the stuff they use to make LCD's. Finally, see letter #40228 for a third approach.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2000
A. A fairly common practice in making glass bottles, aircraft windshields and other glass (in which the end use requires abrasion resistance) is to spray the hot glass with a tin compound such as Tin IV Chloride. The result is a transparent tin oxide coating which is very adherent and electrically conductive. This should be adequate for your needs.
Caveat: Be careful to use proper safety measures to protect yourself and others when working with toxic materials.
- Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
2001
A. Jon,
Have you tried sandblasting the glass and then rubbing graphite into the blasted area to form the substrate?
- Coconut Grove, Northern Territory
2001
A. Hi Jon,
I recently came across a website with a photo gallery of images of coated or plated(?) glass pieces while doing a google search of the www from finishing.com but no details of the processes used were given. I can't give you the URL here because its against the rules, but I'm sure if you google you'll find it easily enough.
Dave.
- Ashbourne, Co. Meath, Ireland.
August 5, 2008
Ed. note: Thanks, Dave! For the record, links are 'generally discouraged', rather than 'against the rules'
:-)
We're trying to build a durable technical reference here, and we've found that it doesn't work if people answer with links in lieu of words & pictures of their own. Had links been included in John A.'s question from 2000, the odds are that they would not be available by the time you viewed the page. Thanks again.
Cleaning procedure for ITO
Q. Respected sir,
I am working in research institute. Hence I need one method , i.e,procedure for cleaning ITO coated glass for my work. If you give some ideal for that it may very useful for my work.
Thanking you sir,
Nirmala Rani .R- Karaikudi, India
2002
Q. HOW TO MAKE CONDUCTIVE GLASS ITO FOR STUDENTS' EXPERIMENT.
SOLOMON ROCKMANEDUCATION - NASSAU, ANDROS, BAHAMAS
2003
A. Spray it with two solutions of buffered ammoniacal silver nitrate and reducer at the same time. The reducer can be a mixture of formaldehyde and glucose.
Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2003
Q. I am a doctoral student pursuing research on field emission from nanotubes. I am looking for a cylindrical glass 40 mm diameter, 200 mm length and thickness 2mm which needs to be coated (ITO) on the inside.The glass tube would be acting as an anode for FED.
If you coat only on flat substrates, could you please guide me as to where can I get this job done of having a coating on the inside
Student - Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
2004
A. you can use dip coating ITO,for example look at www.smm.co.jp/b_info_E/b09_E.html they can supply ito ink or paste,and you could dip coating by yourself.
CSG - china
2004
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Ed. note: That link is now broken.
A. You can using dip coating from ITO precursor solution or ITO slurry.
Zhang Jianrong- Shanghai, China
2006
How to make Transparent PCB traces on glass
2006Q. Sir,
I would like to make a PCB like piece on glass in such a way that the tracks are not visible i.e., are invisible. A few electronic SMD components may be mounted and soldered with additional solder or wire. Is there any way to do so? This is for domestic use.
I understand tin chloride dissolved in water is a suitable material to do so. what precautions I should take in handling Tin Chloride?
Is such solution/paste readily available ?
Thanking you
I remain,
Faithfully
yours,
MINE NEEDS-(Engineer) - SAHU NAGAR, Maharastra, India
This does sound like an intriguing idea, and one which I haven't heard of before. Certainly tin chloride or ITO can't carry the tiniest fraction of the current that a copper trace carries, but I would imagine that there are some signals it can carry.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2006
Q. Could you please teach me how to make the conductive glass step by step, I'm not a scientist, this is for a elementary school project.
I really appreciated all your help.
if you have it in Spanish that will be better for me.
Thanks.
- Colombia, South America
January 18, 2009
A. Hi, Alex. Look up "Brashear Process" on the internet and you will find the complete details, including at least one set of instructions for an elementary school project. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 21, 2009
Q. PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME ON EASY WAY HOW TO MAKE A GLASS CONDUCTIVE FOR A SOLAR PANEL, THANKS.
Alex Zaninovic- Colombia, South America
March 11, 2009
A. Hi, Alex. I may be misunderstanding, but while this page talks about you how to make glass conductive, I don't believe you can convert solar energy to electricity via conductive glass. There is more to it than that! Maybe look up 'photovoltaics' instead of "conductive glass". Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March 15, 2009
February 8, 2010
Q. I have made a small conductive glass sample using 250 g of stannous chloride. The tin oxide layer is the conductive component but I have been told that the modern version is to use indium tin oxide.
Does anyone know what are the new requirements to produce indium tin oxide as the conductive component of conductive glass ?
The information I have says it has "high electrical conductivity and optical transparency" and "Modern conductive glass is often made using indium tin oxide".
Do I need to use something else other than stannous chloride and the same procedure ?
Do I need to use stannous chloride and a different procedure ?
Do I need to use something else other than stannous chloride and another procedure ?
Student - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
A. I thought I'd respond. I actually found this page because of a PV project also. You can make a PV cell using conductive glass. Look up Gratzel cells.
- Lehighton, Pennsylvania Us.
November 8, 2010
Thanks, Todd.
The Gratzel Cell stuff was interesting reading. I'm seeing how conductive glass fits into the situation.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 8, 2010
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