Effect of Sn doping on the structural, optical and electrical properties of TiO2 films prepared by spray pyrolysis

Abstract

In this work, highly oriented pure and tin-doped titanium dioxide (Sn-doped TiO2) with porous nature photoelectrodes were deposited on ITO glass plates using spray pyrolysis technique. The XRD pattern revealed the formation of anatase TiO2 with the maximum intensity of (101) plane while doping 6 at.% of Sn. The morphological studies depicted the porous nature with the uniform arrangement of small-sized grains. The presence of tin confirmed with the EDX spectra. The size of particles of 13 nm was observed from high resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis. The average transmittance was about 85 % for the doped photoelectrode and was observed for the photoelectrode deposited with 6 at.% of tin with decrease in the energy band gap. The PL study showed the emission peak at 391 nm. The maximum carrier concentration and Hall mobility was observed for the photoelectrode deposited with 6 at.% of tin. With these studies, the DSSCs were prepared separately with the dye extracted from Hibiscus rosasinesis and Hibiscus surattensis and their efficiency was maximum for the DSSC prepared with 6 at.% of tin.