Heterojunction p-Cu2O/ZnO-n solar cell fabricated by spark plasma sintering

Abstract

Cuprous oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles were prepared at room temperature by inorganic polycondensation. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses show that the oxide phases formed are pure and well crystallized. The spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique was successfully used to prepare dense nanoceramics with superimposed layers of Cu 2 O and ZnO nanopowders. Sintering conditions were optimized to densify the ceramics without phase transformation or diffusion. These ceramics were also characterized by XRD and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as X-ray computed tomography (XCT). SEM and XCT showed that nanograins are preserved after SPS throughout both oxide materials, while a smaller layer (*20 lm) of pure oxide phase with larger grains is formed in between Cu 2 O and ZnO during the sintering process. The SPS technique results in high material density, with the absence of porosity and cracks, homogenous distribution, and a good phase separation. This is the first time that such as-prepared dense oxide-based heterojunction exhibits a photovoltaic effect under illumination opening a new route for preparing solar cells.

Copper-doped quasi-one-dimensional ZnO for effective photooxidation of As (III) to As (V) in visible light

“…All of them showed photocatalytic activity in the oxidation of hydroquinone in blue light. [8][9][10]. There is information in the literature regarding the use of ZnO-based catalysts for the photocatalytic oxidation of As (III) to As (V) when exposed to visible light.…”

“…It should also be noted that with an increase in copper concentration in the composition of Zn1-xCuxO to 10 at.% a decrease in its photoactivity is observed (table 1). Copper in this case plays the role of electronic traps [7][8][9][10][11].…”

Ca-Doped Copper (I) Oxide Deposited via the Spray Coating Technique for Heterojunction Solar Cell Application

“…Cu 2 O is characterized by a high absorption coefficient in the visible range, and it is chemically stable, cheap, and non-toxic. For these reasons, Cu 2 O is a promising material for use in optoelectronic devices such as photodetectors [4], heterojunction solar cells [5,6], gas sensors [7,8], transistors [9] and catalysts [10]. What is more, copper oxide may also be used as a hole transporting layer (HTL) in perovskite solar cells [11][12][13][14], which seems to be very promising approach among many suggested methods [15][16][17][18][19][20] to improve perovskite stability.…”

CURRENT-VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLAR CELLS p-n JUNCTION ZnO AND TiO2 PARAREL ON Cu2O LAYER

“…4 ZnO and TiO2 are n-type semiconductor materials as negative electrodes have good optical properties. 5 ZnO has a bandgap energy of 3.37 eV. The energy band gap unable to absorb visible light, so it requires a moderate on ZnO semiconductor material to increase the absorption of visible light.…”

“…8 DSSC does not use dyes on TiO2 substrates which have low solar cell efficiency. 9 Some studies using metal oxide materials are TiO2/Cu2O all-oxide heterojunction solar cells produced by spray pyrolysis, 10 heterojunctions p-Cu 2 O/ZnO-n solar cell fabricated by spark plasma sintering, 5 and interconnected ZrO2 doped ZnO/TiO2 network photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells. 11 Material engineering methods in the last two years of research require substantial investment.…”