In this work, we show the results of our investigation on the photoelectric properties of heterojunction solar cells based on Au/PS/mc-Si/Aland Au/TiO2/PS/mc-Si/Alstructures. Porous silicon (PS) were prepared by an electrochemical etching process with different values of current density. The surface porosity was found to increase with the increase of current density. Pulsed laser deposition was used to deposit 80 nm TiO2 thin films. Surface morphology and structural properties of TiO2/PS were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). An enhancement of the electrical properties of the TiO2/PS/mc-Si heterojunction was observed after coating with TiO2. As a consequence, the solar cell efficiencies increased from 1.4% for the uncoated PS/mc-Si structure to 5% for the TiO2 coated one. Impedance spectroscopy confirmed the passivation effect of TiO2 through the improvement of the elaborated cells' electron lifetime and the formation of a TiO2/PS/Au heterojunction with the appearance of a second semi-circle in the Nyquist plot. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.