Electrically reduced graphene oxide for photovoltaic application

Journal of Materials Research volume 34, pages652–660(2019)Cite this article

Abstract

We report Electrically reduced graphene oxide (GO) and n-type Si heterostructure junction-based photovoltaic cell. The transition of the insulating properties of GO to that of semi-conducting was achieved by applying electric voltages using 5, 10, and 15 V biasing. The photovoltaic device I — V characteristics corresponding to the increasing (5–15 V) reduction voltages, obtained on exposure of 25 mW/cm2 visible light, showed approximately same fill factor with increased efficiency. The maximum efficiency of 1.12% was observed under ultraviolet light exposure for photovoltaic cell consisting GO reduced using 15 V reduction voltage. GO was synthesized using the modified Hummers’ technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet—visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The GO characteristic XRD peak corresponding to plane (001) was observed at 9.16°. The UV-Vis spectrum for GO displayed an absorption peak at 228.5 nm, and the corresponding Tauc plot analysis provided a band gap of 4.74 eV. The FTIR analysis showed presence of C=O (1713 cm−1), C=C (1627 cm−1), C—OH (1418 cm−1), C—O–C (1252 cm−1), C—O (1030 cm−1), and C—H (827 cm−1) functional groups in GO.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the University Grants Commission and Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, for the financial assistance. The authors would like to thank to Dr. Azad A. Khan, CIF, Jamia Millia. One of the authors (AS) would like to express sincere thanks to DST for the award of Young Scientist and BOYSCAST Fellowship.

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Affiliations

  1. Advanced Electronic and Nano-Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi, 110025, India

    Arun Singh, Neeraj Sharma & Mohd. Arif

  2. SPECLAB, Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 90036, USA

    Ram S. Katiyar

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  1. Arun Singh
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  2. Neeraj Sharma
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  3. Mohd. Arif
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  4. Ram S. Katiyar
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Correspondence to Arun Singh.

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Singh, A., Sharma, N., Arif, M. et al. Electrically reduced graphene oxide for photovoltaic application. Journal of Materials Research 34, 652–660 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2019.32

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