Annealing Effect of Magnesium Tin Oxide Thin Films Prepared by Nebulizer Spray Pyrolysis Technique for DSSC applications

In the present work, Magnesium Tin Oxide (MTO), transparent conducting oxide thin films (TCO) are prepared by Nebulizer Spray Pyrolysis Technique and the properties are compared with the available ITO substrate. Magnesium acetate (MA), Tin (II) chloride (TC) are taken in three different ratios (0.1:0.1M, 0.1:0.2M, 0.1:0.3M) and the thin films are prepared onto the glass substrate at 400°C. The prepared films were annealed at 400°C for three hours. The structural analysis show the presence of Magnesium Tin Oxide with maximum intensity showing the crystallinity of the prepare samples. Also, the peak corresponds to magnesium oxide and Tin oxides were also observed with less intensity. The crystallite size was found to be around 5 nm and the thickness of the film is found to be 0.23, 0.27 and 0.32 µm for the films prepared at MA: TC in the ration of 0.1:0.1M, 0.1:0.2M and 0.1:0.3M. The sign of bulk carrier concentration shows that the coated film is having n-type conductivity and the resistivity value is very low in the range of 7 x 10 ⁻³Ω cm which is very close to the resistivity value of ITO (8 x10⁻⁴Ω cm). The Percentage of Transmittance is between 75 to 85% in the visible region and the band gap value is 3.8 eV. From the results, it is concluded that MTO is a Best alternative for ITO and can be used in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). (paper)