International Journal of Mechanical and Production

Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD)

ISSN (P): 2249-6890; ISSN (E): 2249-8001
Vol. 8, Issue 4, Aug 2018, 325-332
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF PHOTOVOLTAIC PERFORMANCE

OF SILICON SOLAR CELL BY USING COPPER

DOPED TIO2 THIN FILM

CH. CHAITANYA1, SANDEEP YECHURI2 & K. RAMAKRISHNA3

1
Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation,
Vaddeswaram, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education
Foundation, Vaddeswaram, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
3
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation,
Vaddeswaram, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
ABSTRACT

In the present work Copper (Cu) is used as a dopant element in titanium dioxide (TiO2) crystal structure to
enhance the photovoltaic performance of the silicon (Si) solar cells fabricated with TiO2 thin film. Highly ordered

Original Article
Copper doped TiO2 particles were synthesized by using hydrothermal method with different molar concentrations of 0.25,
0.5, 0.75, and 1.0% and by dispersing in 5 ml of ethanol. During this process Copper doped TiO2 layers were coated on
mesoporous TiO2 films by spin coating process. The effect of Cu doping concentration on the photovoltaic performance
of Si solar cell has been investigated. It is observed that power conversion efficiency of the Cu doped solar cells increased
from 6.61% at 0.25% molar concentration to 8.86% at 0.5% molar concentration. Further it is observed that
improvement in power conversion efficiency of the solar cells is superior with Cu doped TiO2 when compared with the
solar cells doped with other elements viz., Zn, Fe, Eu, Al.

KEYWORDS: Si solar Cell, TiO2 Thin Film, Cu Doping & Efficiency

Received: May 28, 2018; Accepted: Jun 18, 2018; Published: Jul 06, 2018; Paper Id.: IJMPERDAUG201834

NOMENCLATURE

• I Current

• V Voltage

• Voc Open Circuit Voltage

• Isc Short Circuit current

• η Efficiency

• PV Photovoltaic

• UV Ultra Violet

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326 CH. Chaitanya, Sandeep Yechuri & K. Ramakrishna

INTRODUCTION

Solar cells or photovoltaic (PV) systems which provide clean electricity from sunlight have attracted a lot of
attention due to their ability, reliability, and accessibility. The performance of solar cell can be improved or enhanced by
coating with subwavelength semi-conductor nano-structures which brings in reduced reflection losses and better light
manipulation and/or trapping at sub-wavelength scale [1]. PV cells are composed of layers of semiconductor materials,
conventionally silicon in its different crystalline forms, i. e. mono- or multi-crystalline. While the crystallized silicon does
not show promising electric conducting behavior, selectively contaminating the semiconductor at a controlled level,
namely doping, helps to generate a good amount of electric current [2, 3]. Thus for achieving best efficiency, it is
necessary to design solar cells with specific geometries to benefit from some interesting characteristics, e.g., using metallic
and semiconductor nano-structures which can cause extraordinary optical transmission for light localization [4-6]. Though
semiconductor nanostructures improve light absorption performance [7-10] the solar cells need to be designed properly
taking into account larger surface to volume ratio provided for sunlight exposure on the PV cell surface once covered with
nano-structures [11]. Silicon solar cells, coated with dielectric interfaces like Cu doped TiO2 can increase their efficiency
compared with cells coated with other elements.

Al-doped TiO2 layers are generally coated on the mesoporous TiO2 films by a chemical bath deposition process,
followed by sintering at 500°C. These cells exhibit an improvement in two aspects enhancing the electron transport and
suppressing the charge recombination process. The power conversion efficiency of Al-doped TiO2 cell is superior than
mesoporous TiO2 coated cell [12]. Similarly, many authors have reported an improvement in solar cell efficiency by
overcoating on solar cells with Co, Cd, Fe, Zn, Gd, Eu doped TiO2 thin films with different doping concentrations [13-18].
Co-doped with TiO2 generates maximum efficiency of 5.66% [13]. Cd-doped with TiO2 generates maximum efficiency of
3.06% [14]. Fe doped with TiO2 generates maximum efficiency of 2.78% [15]. Zn doped with TiO2 generates maximum
efficiency of 6.58% [16]. Gd-doped TiO2 generates maximum efficiency of 1.18% [17] and Eu doped with TiO2 different
concentrations gives maximum efficiency of 2.47% [18].

To the best of author’s knowledge, till now no reports were found with Cu doped TiO2. Most of the time authors
have concentrated on surface modification with copper for applications such as photocatalytic etc. [19-23]. Thus the
present paper is aimed at analyzing the characteristics of a single crystalline Si solar cell coated with copper doped TiO2.
The variation in efficiency & I-V characteristics is compared with the performance of cells doped with other material and
found that Cu doped TiO2 is superior to cells with other doping materials.

EXPERIMENTAL

With the impregnation method, copper doped mesoporous TiO2 particles were obtained by mixing the as-
synthesized particles into a beaker containing an aqueous solution of CuCl2 · 2H2O with a copper concentration of 0.25,
0.5, 0.75 and 1%. The mixture is stirred well for 1-hour maintaining at ∼ 700C after cooling, the sample is washed with de-
ionized water and filtered. It is dried in a hot air oven for 6 hours at 100 0C to get Cu doped mesoporous TiO2, which is
pale brown in colour.

Different concentration solutions for coating were prepared by dispersing the known amount of Copper modified
TiO2 in 5 ml of ethanol. These solutions were coated on single crystalline Si solar cells with the assistance of a spin coating
unit of VB Ceramics at a high speed of typically around 500 rpm for 40 sec followed by annealing at 4500C for 1-hour in

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Experimental Investigation of Photovoltaic Performance of Silicon Solar 327
Cell by Using Copper Doped Tio2 Thin Film

order to evaporate ethanol. Open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Isc) for coated cells were analysed using solar
module analyser of MECO (model no. 9009). An experimental setup was designed and framed to measure the above
parameters. An incandescent light was placed in such way that the distance from light to the test bed is fixed. The intensity
of the incident light is evaluated with the help of lux meter (MASTECH; Model No: MS6610).

UV-Vis Analysis of TiO2 and Cu Doped TiO2

Mesoporous TiO2 and Cu doped TiO2 at different concentrations were characterized using UV-Vis
spectrophotometer (Lab India) as shown in fig 1(a) and 1(b). Band gap energy values are calculated by representing the
reflectance.

Figure 1(a): Band Gap Curves of Mesoporous TiO2 and Cu Doped

TiO2 at 100 0C at Different Concentrations

Figure 1(b): Band Gap Curves of Mesoporous TiO2 and Cu Doped

TiO2 at 120 0C Different Concentrations

Figure 1(a) and figure 1(b) reveals that the band gap curves of mesoporous TiO2 and Cu doped TiO2 at two
different temperatures, i. e. 1000C and 1200C. The values are obtained by inducing the tangent to the intersection of hv
(horizontal axis). It is observed that there is a slight increment in the band gap values at every particular increase in the
molar concentration of Cu doped TiO2 cells table(1). When compared with a mesoporous TiO2 solar cell the band gap
values of Cu doped TiO2 solar cells are superior.

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328 CH. Chaitanya, Sandeep Yechuri & K. Ramakrishna

Table 1: Band Gap Values of TiO2 and Cu-Modified TiO2

Synthesized at Different Process Temperatures
Molar Concentration Cu-TiO2 at Different Process Temperatures
of Cu-TiO2 (%) 100 0C 120 0C
0 3.19 3.26
0.25 3.21 3.29
0.5 3.22 3.32
0.75 3.27 3.38
1.0 3.33 3.43

Due to shifting of electrons from lower energy d-orbital to higher energy d-orbital in copper, strong absorption is
observed at 700-800nm [25]. The absorption edge slightly shifts to the visible region for Cu doped TiO2 when compared to
pure mesoporous TiO2. Hence it can be inferred that modifying TiO2 with copper increases the light absorption capacity of
mesoporous TiO2 with visible-light response.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In order to enhance the transport properties of the TiO2 layer doping with metal ions, the method is explained in
experimental. Cu was used as a dopant material in this study and the power conversion efficiency at different molar
concentrations is studied and compared with other doping elements. As a result of doping of Cu in TiO2 layers, there is an
increase in the photo-catalytic activity [24]. This increase in photo-catalytic activity leads to increase in power conversion
efficiency of the Cu doped TiO2 Si solar cell.

To investigate the influence of surface modification on the photo- voltaic properties of Si solar cell the short
circuit current (Isc), open circuit voltage (Voc) characteristics are shown in figure (2) and table (2). Compared with the other
molar concentration cells 0.5% Cu doped TiO2 cell yields high open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.52 V and short-circuit current
(Isc) of 134 mA from the table (2).

Table 2: Open Circuit Voltage (Voc), Short Circuit Current (Isc) and
Efficiency (η) of Different Molar Concentrations of Cu Doped
TiO2 Coated on TiO2 Layered Solar Cells
Molar Concentration Voltage Current Efficiency
of Cu- TiO2 (%) (VOC) (V) (ISC) (mA) (η) (%)
0.25 0.51 78 6.21
0.5 0.52 134 8.86
0.75 0.52 93 6.68
1.0 0.41 72 3.73

Table 2 depicts that for 0.5% molar concentration of Cu doped TiO2 the efficiency value is 8.86 %. The increase
in power conversion efficiency at this concentration can be attributed to decrease in electron-hole recombination and
enhance charge separation which in turn increases the efficiency of the solar cell. It is evident that as in the table (2) the
concentration increases power conversion efficiency up to certain level and starts decreasing.

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Experimental Investigation of Photovoltaic Performance of Silicon Solar 329
Cell by Using Copper Doped Tio2 Thin Film

Figure 2: I-V Curves of Different Concentrations of Cu Doped TiO2

Figure 2 reveals I-V curves of Cu doped TiO2 with different molar concentrations (0.25 to 1.0 %). It is observed
from the figure that the short circuit current (Isc) is 134 mA and open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.52 V is produced for 0.5%
Cu doped TiO2 cell from the table (2). When the concentration of doping increases there is the decrease in the production
of short circuit current (Isc) and open circuit voltage (Voc). Finally Si solar cell with 0.5% Cu doped TiO2 gives high Isc, and
Voc values than cells with other concentrations.

Table 3: Comparison of Power Conversion Efficiencies of Different

Elements Doped with TiO2 [13-18].
Element Doped Molar Concentration Highest Efficiency
with TiO2 (%) (η) (%)
Carbon monoxide (CO) 2 5.66
Cadmium (Cd) 2 3.06
Iron (Fe) 1 2.78
Zinc (Zn) 0.5 6.58
Europium (Eu) 5 2.47
Copper (Cu) 0.5 8.86

Table 3 presents the comparison of power conversion efficiencies of different elements doped with TiO2. Here
0.5% molar concentration of Cu doped TiO2 cells gives more efficiency than the other elements of higher concentration
doping with TiO2. Cu effectively increased the short-circuit current (Isc) and power conversion efficiency. It is evident from
the present data that Cu doped TiO2 generates higher power conversion efficiency than other elements.

Figure 3: Efficiency Curve of Cu Doped TiO2 at

Different Molar Concentrations

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330 CH. Chaitanya, Sandeep Yechuri & K. Ramakrishna

Figure 3 reveals the efficiency of Cu doped TiO2 at different molar concentrations. Si solar cell obtained high
power conversion efficiency at 0.5% molar concentration and gradually decreases as the molar concentration of Cu doped
TiO2 increases.

Figure 4: Comparison of Power Conversion Efficiencies of

Different Elements Doped with TiO2 [13-18].

Figure 4 reveals the comparison of power conversion efficiencies of different elements doped with TiO2. The
power conversion efficiencies of doping elements viz., Co, Cd, Fe, Zn, and Eu are low when compared with Cu.

CONCLUSIONS

Quantitative and valuable optimization for fabrication of Si solar cells with Cu doped TiO2 thin films is taken up
in this work. TiO2 thin films doped with Cu at different concentrations were successfully produced on Si solar cells and
tested. Effect of Cu doping on Si solar cells, short circuit current (Isc) generated and power conversion efficiency were
estimated. The power conversion efficiency of Cu doped TiO2 is found increasing with increase in the concentration of
copper, reached a maximum and starts decreasing. The optimal concentration where the efficiency is maximum was found
to be at 0.5% concentration. Further on comparison with data available in the literature for other doped materials like Fe,
Eu, Zn, CO etc., it is inferred that Cu doped TiO2 has a max conversion efficiency of 8.86%.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Authors would like to thank the Management and Director, Centre for Advanced Energy Studies for their
support.

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