Fluorine doped-tin oxide prepared using spray method for dye sensitized solar cell application

Abstract

Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide (FTO) film was fabricated by spray deposition method. FTO films were prepared in different sheet resistance 6.7, 12.1, 19.3, and 23.5 Ω/sq. X-ray diffractograms showed that the as-grown FTO film was tetragonal SnO2. The prepared FTO film have an average transmittance of 80% in the visible region (λ=400-800 nm). These FTO films were then used to fabricate Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). The working electrode was made from TiO2 paste using doctor blade technique. DSSC samples were characterized using solar simulator under AM 1.5 (100 mW/cm2). It is found that the efficiency of DSSC was much affected by sheet resistance of FTO film. The efficiency of DCCS was 2.32, 2.4, 1.1 and 0.97 (%) for the FTO sheet resistance 6.7, 12.1, 19.3, and 23.5 Ω/sq, respectively. It is shown that the optimum DSSC efficiency was made from FTO with sheet resistance 12.1 Ω/sq.