Large photocurrent enhancement in the Cu/n-Cu2O/p-Ag2O/n-Cu2O photoelectrode at the electrolyte interface

Abstract

n-type cuprous oxide (n-Cu2O) has been shown to be an excellent material for fabricating low cost solar cells due to the optical band gap of ~2.0 eV. A substantial photocurrent enhancement of 80% was measured at the Cu/n-Cu2O-electrolyte interface in a photo-electrochemical cell with the introduction of a thin layer of p-type Ag2O between n-Cu2O layers. The enhancement in photocurrent is attributed to the creation of copious electron–hole pairs due to the introduction of a sub-monolayer narrow band gap (~1.5 eV) Ag2O. To study the structure-property and evidence for the presence of fabricated materials, characterization techniques like diffuse reflectance, XRD, EDX, FTIR and SEM have been used.