Fabrication of Thin-Film Solar Cell using Spin Coated Zinc Oxide and Silicon Nanoparticles Doped Cupric Oxide Heterojunction

Inorganic thin-film solar cell were fabricated by spin-coating using zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicon nanoparticles doped cupric oxide (Si-NPs-CuO) has been reported in this paper. The Si-nanoparticles (Si-NPs) was prepared from Si powder which was obtained from the sand of Padma river using aluminothermic process. The presence of Si-NPs was confirmed by Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). The size distribution of Si-NPs size was determined by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) technique. For the fabrication of heterojunction solar cell ZnO was spin-coated on FTO-coated glass substrate and then Si-NPs-doped CuO layers were deposited on ZnO. The produced heterostructure was annealed at 350 °C for 1 hr. J-V characteristics in dark and under 1.5 AM simulated light was investigated for the different thickness of ZnO and constant thickness Si-NPs-CuO. Among them the one with 7-layer of ZnO and 15-layer of Si-NPs-CuO showed an open circuit voltage of 0.433 volt and a short-circuit current density of 2.06 mA/cm
²
indicating its possible use in thin-film solar cells.