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The preferred (002) orientation zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystalline thin films have been deposited on FTO-coated glass substrates by sol–gel spin-coating technology and rapid thermal annealing for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The effects of preannealing temperature (100 and 300°C) on the microstructure, morphology and optical properties of ZnO thin films were studied. The ZnO thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The photoelectric performance of DSSC was studied by I–V curve and the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE), respectively. From the results, the intensities of (002) peaks of ZnO thin films increases with increasing preannealing temperature from 100°C to 300°C. The increase in pore size and surface area of ZnO films crystallized at the increased preannealing temperature contributed to the improvement on the absorption of N3 dye onto the films, the short-circuit photocurrent (J sc) and open-circuit voltage (V oc) of DSSC. The higher efficiency (η) of 2.5% with J sc and V oc of 8.2 mA/cm2 and 0.64 V, respectively, was obtained by the ZnO film preannealed at 300°C.

ZnO-coated TiO2 (ZTO) thin films were deposited on ITO substrates by a sol–gel method for application as the work electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The I–V curve and the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) value of DSSCs for ZTO thin films were studied and compared with single TiO2 films. The results show that the short-circuit photocurrent (J sc) and open-circuit voltage (V oc) values increased from 3.7 mA/cm2 and 0.68 V for the DSSCs with a single TiO2 film to 4.5 mA/cm2 and 0.72 V, respectively, for the DSSCs with a ZTO thin film. It indicated that the DSSCs with a ZTO thin film contributed to provide an inherent energy barrier that suppressed charge recombination significantly. In addition, the higher IPCE value in the ZTO thin film is attributed to the better charge separation by a fast electron transfer process using two semiconductors with different conduction band edges and energy positions.

Lithium tantalite (LiTaO3) thin films have been deposited on Pt(111)/SiO2/Si(100) substrates by means of sol–gel spin-coating technology. Using a diol-based precursor solution and rapid thermal processing (RTP), highly c-axis oriented LiTaO3 thin films are obtained and the degree of orientation is increased with an increase of the heating rate. By changing the heating rate (600–3000 °C/min) and heating temperature (500–800 °C), the effects of various processing parameters on the growth of films are investigated. With the increase of heating rate, the grain size of LiTaO3 thin films decreases markedly, and the relative dielectric constant (er) increases from 28 up to 45.6. It was found that the dielectric loss factor (cosδ) decreased, and the ferroelectric properties were improved by the increase of heating rate. The figures of merit (Fv and Fm) indicate that the LiTaO3 thin film with a heating rate of 1800 °C/min is suitable for application as a high-performance pyroelectric thin-film detector.