Effect of the cathodic polarization on structural and morphological proprieties of FTO and ITO thin films

This paper deals on the influence of the potentiodynamic stress on structural and morphological proprieties of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO, SnO2:F) and indium tin oxide (ITO, In2O3:Sn) commercial substrates. The potential range is between 0.0 and −2.0 (V/SCE) using an electrolyte with neutral pH. The electrochemical behavior was investigated from cyclic voltammetry technique and chronopotentiometric curves. These electrochemical results were associated to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra and morphology images acquired by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The main results show that structural and morphological properties of FTO substrates after cathodic polarization remain near constant when compared with ITO films. The ITO substrates show morphological changes after treatment and the XRD patterns indicate the formation of a crystalline structure with In metallic characteristic, at neutral pH.