Fabrication and Characterization of Cuprous Oxide Solar Cell with Net-Shaped Counter Electrode

摘要

In this work, simple solar cells using cuprous oxide were fabricated and characterized. The solar cells in this experiment used cuprous oxide plate as detecting electrode and copper wires which were woven into a net-shape with a gap size of 2 × 2 cm as a counter electrode. Twenty samples of solar cells were fabricated with oxide layer which were thermally grown in temperature up to 550 °C. Samples with variations in oxidation time (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and 45 minutes) and distance between electrodes (2 cm, 3 cm, and 4 cm) with an electrolyte solution of NaCl with molarity of 2.188 mol/l were produced. The samples were characterized by measuring their Ⅴ-Ⅰ curve. For this purpose, a simple, own-made solar simulator were fabricated and characterized. Using curve fitting technique, parameters such as FF (Fill Factor), efficiency, open circuit voltage, short circuit current, internal resistance, and performance degradation as a function of time of the cells were extracted. The result shows optimum efficiency of 4.573. 10~(-4)%, while optimum oxidation time is 40 minutes and optimum distance between electrodes is 3 cm.