On Titanium Oxide Spray Deposited Thin Films for Solar Cells Applications

Titanium oxide is one of the most promising candidate for relatively low cost, simple manufacture and high-performance new generation solar cells and the recent achievements in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) efficiencies and life time confirm the fact that these new generation solar cells becomes one of the future solutions in energy conversion. In DSSCs the presence of a dense titanium oxide layer is necessary in order to avoid short circuits between electrodes. Then, the interest to have a second porous TiO2 layer is determined by the fact that compared to a flat surface, a dye-sensitized porous surface area increase the absorption and hence conduct to the increase of solar cells efficiencies. Generally these two layers are prepared by successive depositions using two different methods. In this paper we present a simple technique to prepare both layers during the same spraying process. Films morphology and structure of titanium oxide deposited on glass and ITO substrate was investigated by AFM, SEM and XRD respectively