Optical, morphological, and structural properties of green-synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles as a promising nanomaterial for integration in solar cells

Abstract

The sustainable development of nanotechnology has led to extensive research into low-cost, eco-friendly, and non-toxic materials to maximize the efficiency of existing devices and enable the large-scale production of devices in areas such as energy conversion, electronics, and optoelectronics. Research on biosynthesis of nanoparticles remains an inexhaustible field. This paper presents an evaluation of extract as capping and reducing agent to produce zinc oxide nanoparticle for integration in solar cells. The role of extract of Moringa oleifera was assessed and presented. Analyses of zinc oxide nanoparticles’ structural, optical, surface morphological, elemental composition, and chemical bond properties were conducted. The SEM analysis indicate a spherical, nanosized grain morphology with a diameter of 36.25 nm. The XRD analysis yielded an average crystallite size diameter of approximately 36.28 nm. XRD result revealed the wurtzite hexagonal nature of ZnO and showed that temperature annealing affects crystallite grain size. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed formation of zinc oxide nanoparticles. Optical spectroscopic analysis showed that ZnO nanoparticles properties were influenced by temperature annealing. The band gap varies from 1.1 eV to 1.22 eV, which decreases with increase in annealing temperature. The results demonstrated the possibility of production of ZnO nanoparticles at low cost using plant extract, and that thermal annealing is a means of tunning ZnO nanoparticles properties. The potential embedded in these results suggest ZnO nanoparticles as a promising suitable nanomaterial for solar cell photo-anodes.