Effective performance for undoped and boron-doped double-layered nanoparticles-copper telluride and manganese telluride on tungsten oxide photoelectrodes for solar cell devices

Srathongluan, Pornpimol; Vailikhit, Veeramol; Teesetsopon, Pichanan; Choopun, Supab; Tubtimtae, Auttasit

Effective performance for undoped and boron-doped double-layered nanoparticles-copper telluride and manganese telluride on tungsten oxide photoelectrodes for solar cell devices

2016

Srathongluan, Pornpimol | Vailikhit, Veeramol | Teesetsopon, Pichanan | Choopun, Supab | Tubtimtae, Auttasit

This work demonstrates the synthesis of a novel double-layered Cu2−xTe/MnTe structure on a WO3 photoelectrode as a solar absorber for photovoltaic devices. Each material absorber is synthesized using a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The synthesized individual particle sizes are Cu2−xTe(17) ∼5–10nm and MnTe(3) ∼2nm, whereas, the aggregated particle sizes of undoped and boron-doped Cu2−xTe(17)/MnTe(11) are ∼50 and 150nm, respectively. The larger size after doping is due to the interconnecting of nanoparticles as a network-like structure. A new alignment of the energy band is constructed after boron/MnTe(11) is coated on boron/Cu2−xTe nanoparticles (NPs), leading to a narrower Eg equal to 0.58eV. Then, the valence band maximum (VBM) and conduction band minimum (CBM) with a trap state are also up-shifted to near the CBM of WO3, leading to the shift of a Fermi level for ease of electron injection. The best efficiency of 1.41% was yielded for the WO3/boron-doped [Cu2−xTe(17)/MnTe(11)] structure with a photocurrent density (Jsc)=16.43mA/cm², an open-circuit voltage (Voc)=0.305V and a fill factor (FF)=28.1%. This work demonstrates the feasibility of this double-layered structure with doping material as a solar absorber material.

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