High Efficiency Semiconductor‐Liquid Junction Solar Cells based on Cu/Cu₂O

Abstract

Cu/Cu2O photoelectrodes are synthesized by a simple electrodepositing process at low temperature. The values of the electrolyte pH have great influence on the morphology and the compositions of the obtained films, and thus affect the performance of the electrodes. The best device based on Cu/Cu2O and I−/I3− electrolyte gives a high conversion efficiency of 3.13% under simulated AM1.5G illumination. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest efficiency reported for solar cells based on electrodeposited Cu2O. For comparison purposes, pure Cu2O films are also synthesized. The performance of the solar cells based on pure Cu2O is very poor, as low as 0.013%. In addition, the Cu/Cu2O films are perfectly compatible with the lightweight plastic substrates and yielded a power conversion efficiency of 1.44%.

Novel fabrication of copper nanowire/cuprous oxidebased semiconductor-liquid junction solar cells

“…The J SC and V OC were both very low: 0.12 mA/cm 2 and 0.36 V, respectively. The efficiency (η) was only 0.0115%, which is similar to the value of 0.013% reported by Shao et al [15]. The series resistance (R S ) was 22,137 Ω, and the shunt resistance (R SH ) was 13,481 Ω.…”

“…Figure 2 shows the XRD pattern of the as-deposited photoanode samples for different pH and temperature values. All the peaks can be ascribed to Cu and Cu 2 O [15,28,30], and no peak of CuO was observed. The sharp peaks indicate that the Cu 2 O was well crystalized in all the samples.…”

Direct microfabrication of oxide patterns by local electrodeposition of precisely positioned electrolyte: the case of Cu2O

“…This explains why the deposition product is composed primarily of Cu 2 O with a small amount of Cu, which might actually help improve the functional performance of the deposited product. In fact, it has been reported that, by mixing with Cu, the performance of the photovoltaic and photo-catalytic functions of Cu 2 O can be significantly improved2829303132. To verify the proposed hypothesis, electrodeposition without the motion of the needle relative to the substrate with E  = −2.5 V and duration of 0.5 min was also conducted.…”

“…4. Such a morphology is rarely seen in previous studies on electrodeposition of Cu 2 O or Cu which commonly reported regular-shaped films or particles with sharp edges and corners28293334. To grow sharp edges, as proposed by Zhao et al .…”

Low‐Temperature Processable High‐Performance Electrochemically Deposited p‐Type Cuprous Oxides Achieved by Incorporating a Small Amount of Antimony

“…Thus, we attempted to fabricate various device structures. Among several electrode metals, 200 nm Cu (work function of ≈4.5 eV) was used as a Schottky contact with the p‐type Cu 2 O, where the Schottky photodiode requires a metal electrode with a lower work function . The photoresponse of the 550 nm green light was evaluated and the current–voltage characteristics for the photodetector of the u‐Cu 2 O and Cu 2 O:Sb films are shown in Figure b,c, respectively.…”