A Low Cost Synthesis and Characterization of CuO Nanoparticles for Photovoltaic Applications

A A Yankson,G Gebreyesus,E A Armah,A Kuditcher,J K A Amuzu,M N Y H Egblewogbe

doi:10.4314/gjs.v60i1.2

Abstract

A simple low cost chemical route has been used to synthesize cupric oxide nanoparticles. The synthesized CuO nanoparticles were characterized using XRD, TEM and UV-absorption. X-ray diffraction analysis showed the synthesized nanoparticles to be a pure cupric oxide. EDAX analysis showed the presence of copper and Oxygen in the as prepared CuO nano particles, with the AAS indicating that Cu2+ represented 53.5% of the sample. The particle size and particle size distribution of the cupric oxide nanoparticles were obtained by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) whereas the crystallite size and crystallite size distribution were obtained by X-ray diffraction. The particle size was found to be between 20 nm and 60 nm. The particle size distribution obtained from cumulative percentage frequency plots features a log-normal function. Absorbance measurements and analysis showed that the material has an absorbance peak at 314 nm and energy bandgap of 1.48 eV, making it a good candidate for photovoltaic applications.

Highlights

Transition metal oxide nanoparticles are of great importance due to their application in the field of sensing, optoelectronics, catalysis and photovoltaics which hinge on their unique physical and chemical properties differing from the bulk (Selvi et al, 2016) (Swankar et al, 2009) (Srivastra et al, 2013)
In this paper we report a simple low cost chemical route for the synthesis of cupric oxide nanoparticles
The powder was prepared for x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, optical analysis using a UV-VIS absorption spectrometer, particle size analysis using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), morphology and elemental analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX)

Summary

Introduction

Transition metal oxide nanoparticles are of great importance due to their application in the field of sensing, optoelectronics, catalysis and photovoltaics which hinge on their unique physical and chemical properties differing from the bulk (Selvi et al, 2016) (Swankar et al, 2009) (Srivastra et al, 2013). Cupric oxide nanoparticles have attracted a lot of attention lately due to their unique properties. The use of photovoltaic modules in areas of high insolation requires that solar cells are made of materials that do not degrade at high operating temperatures. Some inorganic materials including cupric oxide are known not to degrade at high temperatures, making cupric oxide suitable for solar cell fabrication. The synthesis approaches of CuO nanoparticles have advanced essentially over the past years because of their notable

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