Synthesis and Characterization of Cu-Incorporated Zinc Tin Zorcinate Thin Film as a Promising Candidate as Absorber Layer in DSSC

Abstract

This study presents the elaboration and characterization of un-doped and Copper co-doped Zinc-Tin-Zirconiate (3, 6, 9 mol.%). Cux-ZTZr(2-x) nanostructured thin films prepared using sol-gel Copper co-doped Zinc Tin method on a glass substrate and annealed at 500oC for 1hr. The synthesized film samples are characterized by X-ray (XRD), scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray (HR-SEM/EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and UV–VIS–NIR double beam spectrophotometer. The experimental results demonstrated that all the prepared films exhibited a polycrystalline nanoparticle structure, and the crystallites size was found to be ranged from 17 and 32 nm. SEM micrographs showed scattered nanoparticles with irregular distribution over the substrates, and the particles size is in the range of 21–29 nm. The highly transparent (>85% for doped sample) nanostructures films show a band gap increment from 4 to 4.19 ev with rising Copper content in zinc Tin Zirconiate. The effect of Cu focus in ZTZr will differ in the optical properties of the semiconductor, which means that these films have many advantages in solar cell application.