Effect of hydrogen peroxide on photoelectric properties of high-transmittance FTO films prepared by spray pyrolysis

Abstract

The FTO film prepared by spray pyrolysis has low efficiency and most of the precursors are discharged in the form of waste steam. According to the high oxidation property of H2O2, it is attempted to improve the film formation rate by changing the concentration of H2O2. Fluorine-doped SnO2 (FTO) thin films with high transmittance were prepared by spray pyrolysis using monobutyltin trichloride as the tin source and ammonium fluoride as the fluorine source. Different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (0–0.08 M) are added to the precursor solution. In this paper, we studied the effect of hydrogen peroxide on the structure, surface morphology and photoelectric properties of FTO thin films. The results show that the growth rate of the FTO films increased from 6.04 nm/s to 8.36 nm/s with the increase of H2O2 concentration from 0 to 0.08 M. The optimum preparation process is H2O2 concentration controlled at 0.04 M, and FTO thin films suitable for solar cells are prepared. It has excellent performance parameters; carrier concentration:2.74 ∗ 1021 cm−3; carrier mobility:55.92 cm2 V−1 s−1; photoelectric quality factor:2.66 × 10−3·Ω−1and the average transmittance of visible light: 79.87%. At the same time, increasing H2O2 concentration leads to narrowing of optical band gap. Adding appropriate hydrogen peroxide concentration can improve the film production rate and obtain excellent quality films.