Spray-pyrolysis-deposited as-grown zinc oxide films as UV filters for silicon solar cells

Abstract

The dependence of a solar cell ZnO UV filter's quality on the spray volume was demonstrated. Zinc oxide films prepared using 50 mL and 100 mL of a 0.1 M precursor concentration was prepared. A decrease of 13%-20% on the visible region transmittance was seen from the 100 mL spray volume due to a rougher ZnO surface. In effect, the efficiency of the silicon solar cell drops by 0.17% for the 100 mL ZnO UV filter compared to the 50 mL. This is attributed to light scattering from the surface of the film. A lower spray volume was shown to be sufficient to eliminate UV degradation from the solar cell without compromising its performance.