Studies on pure and Ce doped TiO2 thin films prepared by sol-gel technique

Developments of high efficiency TiO2 thin films based dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been interesting for last two decades. The pure and Ce doped TiO2 thin films were deposited by sol-gel spin coating technique. The phase identification was carried out by X-ray diffraction analysis, it revealed that the prepared thin films were anatase phase. The crystallinity of the prepared thin films was investigated by micro Raman spectroscopy. Ce doped TiO2 thin film showed good crystallinity compared with pure TiO2 thin film. Surface texture changes were noticed by scanning electron microscopy analysis. The emission properties and atomic vacancies of the deposited thin films were studied by photoluminescence spectroscopy. Transmittance spectra of the pure and Ce doped TiO2 thin films were recorded by UV-Vis spectrometer, the wavelength of the Ce doped thin film was in red shifted toward to higher value compared to pure TiO2 thin films. Keyword: DSSCs, TiO2, micro Raman spectroscopy, sol-gel spin coating technique.