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

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Enhancement of power conversion efficiency of Al/ZnO/p‑Si/ Al heterojunction solar cell by modifying morphology of ZnO nanostructure Rewrewa Narzary1   · Palash Phukan1 · Santanu Maity2 · Partha Pratim Sahu1 Received: 12 September 2019 / Accepted: 20 January 2020 / Published online: 30 January 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

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.

1 Introduction In recent years, the development of the first-generation crystalline solar cell based on p–n junction has dominated the photovoltaic market due to their high efficiency and longevity over other technologies [1]. However, the methodologies involved in the design incur inherent pitfalls which include the requirement of high temperature during diffusion, use of potentially harmful chemicals and design cost. Pietruszka et al. [2] demonstrated that surface texturing could enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the photovoltaic (PV); however, the fabrication process demands the use of environmentally hazardous chemicals such as nitric acid ­(HNO3) and hydrofluoric acid (HF) as surface texturing reagents. Therefore, researchers are motivated to design and develop more efficient solar cell incorporating cost-effective environmental-friendly fabrication technologies.

* Rewrewa Narzary [email protected] 1



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



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

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During the past decade, the research focus has been devoted to PV devices based on heterojunction of transparent conducting oxides (TCO) and graphene/rGO with silicon, owing to its superior optoelectronic properties. These new device structures have gained the attention of the researchers for the design and development of low-cost, high-performance heterojunction PV [3–10]. Researchers have reported many works based on the optimization of various micro/nanostructure. Different materials