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In this paper, flexible, robustly adhesive, surface smooth and oxide-resistive AgNWs/AZO composite transparent conductive films (TCFs) were prepared by spin-coating solvothermal derived AgNWs followed by magnetron sputtering AZO protective layer, after which, annealing treatment at 200 ℃ for 20 min was adopted to further increase the performance of the composite film. The samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scan electron microscopy, scanning probe microscope, UV–Vis spectrophotometer and four point probe. The best result of AgNWs/AZO composite films was the one with a transmittance of 85% at 550 nm accompanied with a low sheet resistance of 19 Ω/□ by controlling the spin-coating times fixed at three. The figure of merit for the composite TCFs was 10.4, which was larger than the value of 8.8 for commercial ITO film. These amazing results would render the AgNWs /AZO composite TCFs an ideal candidate to replace conventional ITO for its potential application in flexible devices including OPV and OLED.

In this paper, Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composite was obtained by a hydrothermal treatment of the mixture of CZTS and graphene oxide (GO). The samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scan electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and Brunauer–Emmmett–Teller (BET) test. The electrochemical performance of CZTS particles and CZTS/RGO composite used as supercapacitor electrodes was tested for the very first time. The electrochemical measurement demonstrated that the specific capacitance for CZTS/RGO in 3 M KOH aqueous electrolyte was as high as 591 F/g at a current density of 0.25 A/g which was four times larger than that of pure CZTS (138 F/g). Increasing the current density to 1 A/g, the specific capacitance of CZTS/RGO composite was kept as high as 248.5 F/g. After 1000 cycles, the capacity retention was still maintained at 80.6%. It was concluded that the high conductivity and large surface area of RGO resulted in the lower charge transfer and ion diffusion resistance in CZTS/RGO composite, which synergistically enhanced the capacitive performance of composite material.

The Cd x Zn 1− x S thin films were prepared by chemical bath deposition in a solution containing cadmium chloride, zinc chloride, thiourea, sodium citrate and ammonia. It was found Cd x Zn 1− x S thin films could be successfully prepared at different CdCl 2 concentrations from 0.04 M to 0.01 M. The morphological, structural, optical properties of Cd x Zn 1− x S films fabricated by different Cd source concentrations were investigated by XRD, SEM and UV–vis-NIR spectroscopy, respectively. The Cd x Zn 1− x S films prepared at 0.03 M and 0.02 M CdCl 2 showed uniform, dense surface morphology and good crystallinity. With the concentration of CdCl 2 in solution decreasing from 0.04 M to 0.01 M, the zinc content increased. Accordingly, the optical band gap increased from 2.45 eV to 3.07 eV. The photo-current response properties were mainly discussed. All the films showed obvious photoconductive phenomenon. The Cd x Zn 1− x S film prepared at 0.02 M CdCl 2 showed a best photo-current response, which presented fastest raise-up and fall-down photo-current when the light was turned on and off.

WO3–TiO2–ZnO composite films were successfully prepared on glass substrates via a sol–gel method using polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400) as an organic additive. The influence of PEG-400 on microstructure and photochromic properties of the composite films was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer. The addition of PEG-400 could increase the amount of the adsorbed water in the WO3–TiO2–ZnO composite films, which plays a vital role in the photochromic process. SEM observation indicated that the aggregation of the particles in the films became serious when the addition amount of PEG-400 was above 0.5 g, for which a molecular ratio of WO3 and PEG-400 was 117:1. The photochromic property of the composite film firstly increased and then decreased with increasing amount of PEG-400. The WO3–TiO2–ZnO composite film with 0.5 g PEG-400 addition presented a best photochromism, which showed saturated photochromism in 60 s and bleached back to initial state in 10 h.