Deposition by Spray-Pyrolysis of Tin Oxide Doped with Fluorine Produced by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most important sources of renewable energy today. The production of electric energy is based on silicon cells, which are expensive and difficult to produce and therefore, New preparation methods, materials or approaches are needed. This work aims to deposit Tin oxide doped with fluorine, prepared by sol-gel, on a glass substrate using the spray pyrolysis technique. F-SnO2 (FTO) solution was synthesized by sol-gel method, employing NH4F and SnCl2 precursors in an ethanol solution. Before the formation of the gel, the solution was sprayed using a pistol aerographic, On a substrate at approximately 600oC. This process was repeated 50 times, and after that, the sample was cooled until room temperature inside the furnace. The obtained samples (substrates for the PV cell) present a resistance between 10 and 30 Ω. The energy dispersive x-ray (EDS) was used to confirm the presence of fluorine in the SnO2 network.