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Enhancement of power conversion efficiency of Al/ZnO/p-Si/Al heterojunction solar cell by modifying morphology of ZnO nanostructure

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Abstract

This paper proposes a cost-effective sol–gel method for synthesis of ZnO nanostructure to make Al/ZnO/p-Si/Al heterojunction solar cell. Here, crystalline ZnO nanostructure was grown on p-silicon and annealed at 300 °C, 400 °C and 500 °C for application in heterojunction solar cell. The optimum temperature for obtaining uniform crystalline nanostructure was 500 °C, as confirmed from XRD and SEM imaging. As investigated by UV–Vis spectroscopy, the ZnO nanostructure layer exhibited high transmittance in the visible spectrum and has a direct band gap of 3.26–3.28 eV. The power conversion efficiency of Al/ZnO/p-Si/Al solar cell is enhanced from 1.06 to 2.22% due to increase in surface area of ZnO by formation of crystalline nanostructure due to increase of annealing temperature. The optimum value of short-circuit current (Isc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc) was measured using current–voltage (I–V) under AM 1.5 illuminations and found to be 9.97 mA and 460 mV, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful for financial support from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (NFHE-ST) and UGC-National Fellowships for OBC and also would like to thank Tezpur University for providing fabrication facilities and characterization facilities (SAIC, Tezpur University).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, Napaam, Assam, 784028, India

    Rewrewa Narzary, Palash Phukan & Partha Pratim Sahu

  2. Centre of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, West Bengal, India

    Santanu Maity

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  1. Rewrewa Narzary
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  2. Palash Phukan
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  4. Partha Pratim Sahu
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Correspondence to Rewrewa Narzary.

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Narzary, R., Phukan, P., Maity, S. et al. Enhancement of power conversion efficiency of Al/ZnO/p-Si/Al heterojunction solar cell by modifying morphology of ZnO nanostructure. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 4142–4149 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-02962-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-02962-2

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