the second quarter of this program is concerned with the determination of the firing cycle in a horizontal tube furnace for moo sub 3 :sn ink composition applied by silk screening process on p on n structured solar cells. in comparison with the strip heater used in the first quarter to determine the reaction mechanism, the reduction of moo sub 3 in the tube furnace progresses at a much faster rate and the sn:mo alloy forms at a much lower temperature the device characteristics determined by the v-i curve showed a high resistance (approx. 10 ohms) at peak temperatures between 600 exp 0 c and 800 exp 0 c. the high series resistance can be attributed to the lack of formation of mosi sub 2 within the used temperature range as pointed out in references to theoretical and experimental work concerned with the formation of metal silicides. according to these references this temperature range is right for the formation of silicide of titanium, which, besides having a lower resistance value, forms in the presence of an oxidized silicon surface. therefore the basic moo sub 3 ink composition was modified by an addition of titanium resinate corresponding to a titanium concentration of 1-15000 based on the solids in the mixture. the addition of titanium decreased the series resistance to the level of 1 ohm or better and the device characteristics were comparable with the devices metallized by electroless nickel and silk screened silver. (era citation 05:008264)