In this work, simple and low-cost metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure solar cells with silicon dioxide prepared by anodization technique in deionized water at room temperature are proposed. The characteristics of MOS structures solar cells are dependent on anodization time. It was observed that the efficiency and the leakage current density of MOS structure solar cells increase when the anodization time decreases. Oxide thickness is critical for the MOS structure solar cell and it can be controlled by anodization techniques. For a cell exposed under 1000 W/m(2), efficiency up to 9.7% was demonstrated in this work. (c) 2009 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3000124] All rights reserved.