Kariyawasm, MHewage, J2024-01-242024-01-242023-11-01Malka Kariyawasm and Jinasena Hewage. (2023). Enhancement of Semiconductor Properties of ZnO and Cu2O for Photovoltaic Applications. Proceedings of SLIIT International Conference on Advancements in Sciences and Humanities, 1-2 December, Colombo, pages 346-352.2783-8862https://rda.sliit.lk/handle/123456789/3644The Photovoltaics phenomenon is one of the major turning points in the battle against the depletion of fossil fuels. Sunlight being the main resource in photovoltaics, there still remains a quest to harvest it efficiently, to generate electricity. This study is focused on designing a basic, cost-effective prototype solar cell using ZnO and Cu2O nanoparticles (NPs) under normal university laboratory conditions. An ITO-coated glass was used as the substrate of the solar cell and a modified low-temperature chemical bath deposition method was used to fabricate the solar cell. Both ZnO and Cu2O were synthesized by aqueous precipitation methods while cobalt co-doped Ag-ZnO NPs were synthesized by solvothermal method. The UV-spectroscopic analysis confirmed the characteristic band of ZnO-NPs at 367.5 nm, Cu2O at 360 nm and cobalt co-doped Ag-ZnO at 378 nm. The FTIR spectrum showed sharp peaks at 460 cm-1 and 606 cm-1 for the corresponding Zn-O bond and Cu-O bond respectively with a broad peak at 1329 cm-1 for Cu2O FTIR, due to the chemisorbed and/or physisorbed H2O and CO2 molecules on the surface of nanostructure. The EDX analysis showed the presence of carbon impurity in ZnO-NPs which resulted in a deviated XRD pattern for ZnO while Cu2O showed the characteristic XRD pattern. The solar cell, which was illuminated under three different lux conditions had a characteristic J-V plot when measured through Gamry Potentiostat. This simple, cost-effective technique can be adopted by large-scale solar cell manufacturing firms to build small prototype solar cells.enPhotovoltaicsZnO NPsCu2O NPsCo co-doped Ag-ZnO NPsSolar cellArticlehttps://doi.org/10.54389/CQHG1902