Preparation of Fluoride-Doped Tin Oxide Films on Soda–Lime Glass Substrates by Atomized Spray Pyrolysis Technique and Their Subsequent Use in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

The development of a novel method for the fabrication of low-cost, transparent, conducting glass (F–-doped SnO2 layer on soda–lime glass, FTO) by a specially developed atomized spray pyrolysis technique using cheap soda–lime glass in place of commercially used expensive glass at a comparatively lower temperature of 450 °C is presented. The use of these FTO plates in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) will also be described. The optimum temperature of 450 °C for the FTO layer on soda–lime glass is obtained by carrying out atomized spray pyrolysis of the precursor solution onto the soda–lime glass substrate at several different temperatures and by characterizing the materials obtained at each temperature by X-ray diffraction analysis. The FTO layers formed at 450 °C have also been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for morphology, grain size, and film thickness and by UV–visible transmittance spectroscopy for the optical transmission in the visible range. The electrical properties of the FTO...