College of Engineering
Copper (I) Oxide Nanostructured Solar C ells
Anjli Pate l COE Chemical Engineering Dr . Ja son B axt er Faculty Mentor Chemical & Biological Engineering
Poster Session A
Nanostructured solar cells with copper (I) oxide absorber layers provide considerable promise for the future of solar cell technology. Because it is abundant, nontoxic, inexpensive, and photoactive, copper (I) oxide has great potential as a p-type absorber material. The purpose of this project was to develop a solid state copper (I) oxide solar cell with maximum efficiency. The components of the solar cells included a conductive glass substrate of fluorine doped tin oxide and an array of vertical zinc oxide nanowires grown on the substrate by chemical bath deposition. The zinc oxide nanowires served as the n-type electron conductor in the cell. A layer of copper (I) oxide was electrodeposited to fill the pores between the nanowires, followed by thermal evaporation of gold contacts. A maximum efficiency of 0.987% was achieved for the solar cells, with a short circuit current density of 9.70 mA/cm2 and an open circuit voltage of 0.246 V. One source of limited efficiency is unfavorably low shunt resistance. Low shunt resistance allows charges to flow in different pathways without adding to the photocurrent, decreasing cell efficiency. In the future, a blocking layer between the nanowires and copper (I) oxide will be investigated to increase shunt resistance. 66