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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2012
We have deposited porous ZnO films on aluminum-doped ZnO (ZnO/AZO) and fluorine-doped tin oxide (ZnO/FTO) transparent substrates, and annealed both in air at 500°C. X-ray diffraction measurements of the nanoporous ZnO films after heat treatment showed that, ZnO/AZO film exhibited a dominant (002) diffraction while the ZnO/FTO showed mixed diffraction peaks with the (100) and (101) being dominant. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) based on the sensitization of the porous ZnO films on AZO and FTO substrates with an indoline dye were constructed. The photoaction spectrum, which is a measure of the degree of sunlight harvesting, was broad and higher in the ZnO/AZO DSC than that of the ZnO/FTO DSC. Conversion efficiency of 7.3 % was obtained for the ZnO/AZO DSC while 4.5 % was recorded for the ZnO/FTO. The superior photovoltaic performance of the ZnO/AZO DSC is attributed to better ZnO film orientation after thermal treatment and the higher sunlight harvesting.