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

• High quality anatase Sn -doped TiO2 thin films were deposited on ITO glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique at the substrate temperature 450 °C.
• XRD study revealed that Sn -doped TiO2 films are polycrystalline nature with tetragonal structure.
• The high transmittance of about 85% in the visible and near infra red regions and decrease in the resistivity value indicating the semiconducting nature of Sn -doped TiO2 films.

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 (HR-TEM) analysis. The average transmittance was about 85% for the doped photoelectrode and was observed for the photoelectrode deposited with 6 at% of tin, with decreased 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 Surttasinesis and their efficiency was maximum for the DSSC prepared with 6 at% of tin.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide