Abstract

• The increasing demand for energy that human beings are faced with the photovoltaic (PV) technology which converts solar radiation into electricity has undergone increasable development. Fluorine doped Tin oxide (FTO) thin film is widely used in various fields of electronic devices such as window layer in solar cell, substrates for electrode deposition and transparent contact in optoelectronic and so on. In this work, nanocomposites of FTO thin film was fabricated by sol-gel dip coating method and then it was applied as dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) component. The effect of concentration of precursor solution, annealed temperature and heating time in the growth of FTO on glass substrates were studied and discussed. The prepared FTO thin film was analyst by FT IR. The surface morphology of FTO thin films was studied using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to identify the distribution of grain and the growths of nanostructure with prefer orientation. The electrical properties of sample were analyzed by using four-point probe methods. The optical property was studied using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The structural investigation of as-prepared film was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The minimum value of sheet resistance was found to be 1.02 Ω sp-1 for the prepared SnO2:F film at annealed temperature 400°C. The X-ray analysis confirmed the polycrystalline nature of FTO film with preferential orientation along 110 plane. The method was found to be economic and suitable for research and development. The prepared FTO was applied as an electrode in the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) electrode application and the photovoltaic effect was observed.