A simple annealing process to obtain highly transparent and conductive indium doped tin oxide for dye-sensitized solar cells

A simple annealing process is proposed to utilize indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It is shown that highly transparent thin films with low sheet resistivity can be obtained by annealing amorphous-phase rich ITO. The deposited ITO films have been extensively characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis spectroscopy and electrical measurements. DSSCs fabricated by the proposed method have achieved a conversion efficiency of up to 4.48%. It is found that, when the film's thickness exceeds the critical thickness, 500 nm, the annealing process causes adverse effects on the film's optoelectronic properties. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.