Abstract

• The main objective of this research work was to synthesize and to characterize structural and electrical properties of nanocrystalline titanium carbide thin films. The spin coating method was used to synthesis titanium carbide thin films, which were obtained from the HCl etching of MAX phase Ti3AlC2, The structural and morphological properties of the obtained films were characterized with XRD and SEM. EDXRF confirmed that aluminium (Al) was removed by etching, and the disappearance of Ti3AlC2 peaks were revealed from XRD profiles. From the SEM images it was revealed that the fabricated nanocrystalline films composed of several flakes and their sizes up to a few hundred nanometers. The typical microstructure of nanocrystalline titanium carbide thin films consisted of plate like grain and the grain size could be controlled by varying sintering temperature and time. Resistivity measurements were also performed with a four point probe method. The obtained results showed that nanocrystalline titanium carbide thin films could be used for transparent conductive electrodes.