Construction of Nanorod-TiO2/p-Cu2O Heterostructure Thin Films for Solar Cell Application

This research aimed to develop n-type nanorod structure of titanium dioxide (n-TiO 2 )/p-type cuprous oxide (p-Cu 2 O) heterojunction thin film solar cell.The nanorod-TiO 2 thin film was fabricated on FTO glass substrate using hydrothermal method by varying the volume of hydrochloric acid (HCl).The volume of HCl being manipulated in the scale of 100, 130 and 160 ml.Based on these findings, the usage of 130 ml HCl was determined to be the optimum value for the fabrication of nanorod-TiO 2 .After that, the construction of heterostructure thin film was carried out by deposition of p-Cu 2 O material on the n-TiO 2 thin film.The p-Cu 2 O was fabricated using new proposed technique, called two-steps electrodeposition method.The deposition time was varied 90, 105 and 120 minutes.Finally, the n-TiO 2 /p-Cu 2 O thin films were also characterized to determine the optimum condition.Based on the results, the optimum n-TiO 2 /p-Cu 2 O heterojunction thin films was developed at 105 minutes of electrodeposition time.The structural, morphological, topological, optical and electrical properties of each layer in n-TiO 2 /p-Cu 2 O thin films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and Four-point probe, respectively.