Preparation and Characterization of CuO Nanostructured Thin Films by Chemical Bath Deposition

Abstract

In this work, copper oxide (CuO) thinfilms are prepared by chemical bath deposition technique (CBD). The films are investigated with respect to annealing temperature and molar concentration. According to XRD analysis, all the prepared thin films were polycrystalline with monoclinic structures and almost oriented at the planes (002) and (111). FESEM analysis revealed rod-like shapes. The observed bandgap value of copper oxide thin films ranged from 1.65 eV to 1.59 eV. CuO film exhibits high absorption in the visible spectrum. This activity is particularly intriguing in terms of the use of CuO as an absorber layer in solar cells. Moreover, the electrical conductivity and the activation energy of CuO were found to be influenced by the molar concentration and annealing temperatures. These findings show that CuO films prepared by the CBD method can be used to fabricate optoelectronic devices.