Schottky barrier devices have been produced using silver nanowires and titania films on stainless steel for use as sensitized photovoltaic devices. A solvothermal method was used to produce titania sols and a dip coating method was used to coat steel substrates to form a thin film of TiO_2. The sols were characterised by XRD and UV-vis spectroscopy and the devices by current-voltage, photocurrent and capacitance measurements. It was found the UV efficiency could be increased to a peak of above 1% by improvements in fabrication method, including the use of TiN substrates. Though the efficiency of these devices remains low, the active areas as estimated from the temperature profiles and capacitance suggests a very small active area and therefore, the area available for the separation of charge may be small. Functionalisation with a ruthenium dye yields a photocurrent response in the visible region.
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