Properties of Chemically Synthesized Nanostructured Copper (II) Oxide Thin Film

Abstract

Wet chemical method has been successfully used in preparation of Copper (II) Oxide Thin Film by spin coating on glass substrates, at an annealing temperature of 600°C for 1 hour in air. It has high absorbency within visible region wavelength 400 – 700 nm of the electromagnetic wave, making it a suitable absorber in the fabrication of solar cell. The direct energy band gap was estimated using Tauc’s relation to be 1.54 eV. The cupric phase synthesized was confirmed by matching the 2θ peak values obtained 35.23° and 38.37° with the JCPDS value and observed to have a monoclinic lattice system. The morphology as revealed by the scanning electron microscope image shows a uniform round shaped grains. The average grain size was obtained using Debye scherrer formular to be 24.72 nm. The broad peaks observed on the X-ray diffractometer pattern shows that the grains are very small: nanostructured in nature.

Keywords: Thin Film, Band Gap, Nanostructure, Grain Size, Synthesized and Crystalline.