Relative examination on performances of bare titania and SnO2 stacked titania as photoanodes

Bare TiO2 thin-film and SnO2 stacked TiO2 thin-film were synthesized in the present work for the evaluation of their credibility to perform as a photoanode material for photovoltaic applications especially in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). The probing tools utilized for analysing the as-synthesized thin films were X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), UV-Visible-Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV-DRS) and Field-dependent Dark and Photoconductivity Studies. Crystallite size data from XRD of these bare and SnO2 stacked TiO2 samples show a reduction in the size for SnO2 stacked TiO2 sample which in-turn denotes the augmentation in surface properties of the sample. K-M plots from UV-DRS analysis reflect that the SnO2 stacked TiO2 sample possessed band gap value diminished than TiO2 thereby enabling it as a superior material for opto-electrical applications. Field-dependent dark and photoconductivity of the samples showed improvement in conduction for SnO2 stacked TiO2 than bare TiO2. The overall characteristic results of the samples suggest that they could be utilized as an obvious material for photovoltaic applications exclusively for DSSCs.