Synthesis and characterization of Sb-doped SnO₂ with high near-infrared shielding property for energy-efficient windows by a facile dual-titration co-precipitation method

Sb-doped SnO₂ (ATO) powders were favorably synthesized using a dual-titration co-precipitation method for the application of energy-efficient windows. A dual-titration co-precipitation method can effectively inhibit the aggregation of primary nanoparticles, which is conducive to prepare stable dispersion applied to glazing materials for blocking part of solar radiation. Various annealing temperatures, doping molar ratios and ethanol content of precursor solution were used to investigate the influence on the morphology and phase composition of the as-synthesized ATO powders. The results illustrated that the reasonable reaction conditions to prepare ATO powders with near-infrared shielding property should be: the doping molar ratio of 10%, the content of ethanol in precursor solution of 100% and the annealing temperature of 1000 °C. Besides, ATO primary nanoparticles were gained ranging from 45 to 55 nm with a low aggregated degree. The ATO coating prepared by the ATO dispersion with 20 wt% demonstrated the optimal selective transmitted spectra, which simultaneously achieved the average visible transmittance of 80.15% but average near-infrared transmittance of 23.31%. In addition, a simulated experiment demonstrated that ATO coated glass exhibited a better near-infrared shielding property than ITO (Sn-doped In₂O₃) coated glass.