Al or Sn doped ZnO films were deposited by spray pyrolysis using aqueous solutions. The films were deposited on either indium tin oxide coated or bare glass substrates. ZnCl2, AlCl3 and SnCl2 were used as precursors. The effect of ZnCl2 molar concentration (0.1-0.3 M) and doping percentage (2-4% AlCl3 or SnCl2) have been investigated. The main goal of this work being to grow porous ZnO thin films, small temperature substrates (200-300 degrees C) have been used during the spray pyrolysis deposition. It is shown that, if the X-ray diffraction patterns correspond to ZnO, the films deposited onto bare glass substrate are only partly crystallized while those deposited onto ITO coated glass substrate exhibit better crystallization. The homogeneity of the films decreases when the molar concentration of the precursor increases, while the grain size and the porosity decrease when the Al doping increases. The optical study shows that band tails are present in the absorption spectrum of the films deposited onto bare glass substrate, which is typical of disordered materials. Even after annealing 4 h at 400 degrees C, the longitudinal resistivity of the films is quite high. This result is attributed to the grain boundary effect and the porosity of the films. Effectively, the presence of an important reflection in the IR region in samples annealed testifies of a high free-carriers density in the ZnO crystallites. Finally it is shown that when deposited in the same electrochemical conditions, the transmission of a polymer film onto the rough sprayed ZnO is smaller than that onto smooth sputtered ZnO. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.