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Photovoltaic properties of low temperature solution processed earth abundant CuO nanocrystal‐based hybrid solar cells
Author(s) -
Ganga B. G.,
Seetharaman S. M.,
Varma P. C. R.,
Namboothiry M. A. G.,
Santhosh P. N.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201600671
Subject(s) - materials science , nanocrystal , solar cell , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , raman spectroscopy , heterojunction , annealing (glass) , chemical engineering , polymer solar cell , energy conversion efficiency , photovoltaic system , doping , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , optics , composite material , physics , engineering , ecology , biology
p‐type copper oxide (CuO) nanocrystals were prepared by a wet chemical method and are used to make thin films by spin casting. CuO nanocrystals were characterised using XRD, Raman, TEM and XPS. Low temperature solution processed thin films of CuO crystals showed a hole mobility of 4.57 × 10 −4 cm 2 V −1 s −1 perpendicular to the plane of the film and is measured using space charge limited current method. Due to the difficulty in making solution processed homo p–n junction and n‐doping of CuO, a planar hybrid heterojunction solar cell is fabricated using solution processed CuO and a n‐type organic material, [6,6]‐phenyl‐C70 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). A power conversion efficiency of 0.23% is obtained for hybrid solar cell comprising CuO as active layer where all the device fabrications were carried out at temperature ≤100 °C. Analysis of the current density–voltage ( J – V ) characteristics at different light intensities is carried out to unravel the recombination mechanism occurring at the interface. Further, effect of annealing the active layer on the photovoltaic performance is investigated.