Nitrogen-Doped Amorphous Carbon Homojunction from Palmyra Sugar as a Renewable Solar Cell

Abstract

An a-C/a-C:N junction, which used palmyra sugar as the carbon source and ammonium hydroxide (NH 4 OH) as the dopant source, was successfully deposited on the ITO glass substrate using the nano-spraying method. The current-voltage relationship of the junction was found to be a Schottky-like contact, and therefore the junction shows the characteristic rectifiers. This means the a-C and a-C:N are semiconductors with different types of conduction. Moreover, the samples showed an increase in current and voltage value when exposed to visible light (bright state) compared to the dark condition, thereby, indicating the creation of electron-hole pairs during the exposure. It was also discovered that the relationship between current and voltage for the a-C/a-C:N junction sample formed a curve that satisfies the rule of the photovoltaic effect when exposed to visible light from a light bulb. The exposure of this sample to direct sunlight at AM 1.5 conditions produced a curve that meets the rules for the emergence of the photovoltaic effect with higher characteristics for the current-voltage relationship. Thus, the a-C/a-C:N junction sample is a solar cell successfully fabricated using a sample method and has a maximum efficiency of 0.0013%.