Abstract
Electroless Ni-Mo-P coatings were deposited onto ceramic tiles in order to be employed as electrodes for the electrodeposition of ZnO and Cu2O heterojunction layers. Varying conditions, such as duration, annealing of the electroless coating and applied potential, and duration for ZnO electrodeposition were studied in order to optimize the properties of the ZnO/Cu2O heterojunctions toward improved photoelectrical performance. The coatings were evaluated in terms of morphology, crystalline structure, and by electrochemical and photoelectrical means. The obtained results indicated that a prolonged annealing treatment at low temperature is beneficial to improve the roughness and electrical conductivity of the Ni-Mo-P coating to further enhance the electrodeposition of ZnO. The morphology analysis revealed continuous and homogeneous Ni-Mo-P coatings. The formation of cube-like Cu2O crystals with larger grain size was induced by increasing the deposition duration of ZnO. The properties of ZnO layer are much improved when a higher cathodic potential is applied (−0.8 V) for 1 h, resulting in optimum photoelectric parameters as 1.44 mA·cm−2 for the JSC and 760.23 µV for the VOC value, respectively, for the corresponding heterojunction solar cell.
Highlights
Ceramic materials show excellent chemical stability, high hardness and wear resistance, and have higher melting temperature in comparison to other materials [1,2]
A ZnO/Cu2 O heterojunction type solar cell was fabricated onto ceramic substrate by simple electrodeposition technique
The electrical functionalization of the ceramic surface has been achieved by electroless coating of a Ni-Mo-P film
Summary
Ceramic materials show excellent chemical stability, high hardness and wear resistance, and have higher melting temperature in comparison to other materials [1,2]. The ceramics show an important drawback in some applications, namely they are poor conductors of electricity and heat and they exhibit high fragility [2] In this regard, surface modification by methods including electroless deposition (ED) attracted attention in order to improve the electrical properties of these non-conductive surfaces (polymer, ceramics) without using external current [7,8,9,10]. The deposition bath is formed by a metal salt, a complexing and reducing agent, a stabilizer, an inhibitor, and others (pH regulators, wetting and polishing agents) [11,12] Factors such as temperature, time, pH, and chemical composition directly influence the morphology, composition, and final structure of electroless coating, as well as the electrical and magnetic properties [12,13,14]. Thickness and size grain dependence were observed with
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