R. P. Wijesundera

University of Kelaniya · Physics and Electroncs

Improving the performance of TiO2 photoanodes via the inclusion of metal particles on the electrode surface could provide significant advantages for the development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We studied a TiO2/Cu film electrode prepared by electrodepositing Cu particles on a TiO2 film on an indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) substrate. Cu par...

Supercapacitors are crucial for modern energy storage, offering high power density, fast charging, and life spans. They are widely used in various applications, meeting the need for lightweight, flexible, and eco-friendly energy solutions. Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) holds significant promise as an electrode material for supercapacitors owing to its disti...

Cu2O has gained attention for the anode application of the rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery (LIB) than the other competing materials due to its high theoretical capacity (375.0 mAh/g), good capacity retention, affordability, non-toxicity and ease of storage. The crystallinity, morphology and interfacial properties between the current collector/anod...

The rapid expansion of the global population together with industrialization intensifies our diurnal energy need. Addressing the present energy demand is a challenging task. Solar energy stands as a pivotal solution to the global energy crisis, offering a sustainable and renewable energy source to meet the escalating demand for electricity. Photovo...

Cu2O homojunction solar cells were fabricated using potentiostatic electrodeposition technique. n-Cu2O thin films were grown in an acetate bath while p-Cu2O thin films were grown in a lactate bath. In the growth of n-Cu2O films, cupric acetate concentration, pH and temperature of the bath, deposition potential and duration (film thickness) and anne...

This article thoroughly analyses metal oxide nanostructures with one-dimensional properties and their utilisation in hydrogen (H2) gas detection. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in utilising the distinct characteristics of Metal Oxides (MOXs) Nanowires (NWs), Nanorods (NRs), and Nanotubes (NTs) to create advanced H2 gas senso...

This research article provides a comprehensive investigation into the optoelectronic characteristics of three distinct types of cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films, namely: (a) conventionally prepared CdS thin films using chemical bath deposition (CBD-CdS), (b) CdS thin films produced via chemical bath deposition with the inclusion of zinc (CBD-Cd(1−x...

No: 66 Ionic conductivity of novel solid polymer electrolyte based on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and magnesium pyrophosphate (Mg2P2O7) Lithium-ion batteries were hailed as a breakthrough solution for energy storage, revolutionizing portable electronics, electric vehicles, and other applications. However, as their implementation expanded, certain draw...

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) have attracted tremendous interest as suitable candidates for harnessing solar energy in the recent years. The inherent optoelectronic properties of the inorganic transition metal oxide, negative type cuprous oxide (n-Cu2O), makes it an attractive candidate to improve the performance of PSCs when incorporated as the elect...

A comparative study on CZTS films grown by two different techniques, namely, sequential electrodeposition and single-step electrodeposition, has been carried out. Electrodeposition of Cu, Sn and Zn stack layers followed by sulphurisation with H2S is one of the CZTS growth techniques. Growth parameters of sequentially electrodeposited CZTS were opti...

Improvement in the efficiency of organic solar cell (OSC) is one of the hot topics of the modern-day research. Despite environment friendliness and several other practical advantages, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of OSC has not yet achieved the levels of the commercial inorganic solar cells. In this context, molecular tailoring of the dono...

CZTS (Cu2ZnSnS4) is a relatively new and promising semiconductor material suitable for PV applications due to its favorable optoelectronic properties. Of the many techniques available for growing these films, a comparative study on sequential and single step electrodeposition methods to grow CZTS films was carried out in this investigation to explo...

LoRa, Sigfox, and Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) are some of the long-distance, low-power wireless communication technologies developed in the recent past. The proposed system consists of mainly nodes and a gateway as the fundamental system architecture. Nodes only communicate with the gateway individually and the gateway communicates with...

In this study, we have investigated the possibility of improving the VOC, FF and

Polymer based organic solar cells (OSCs) are of tremendous interest as suitable candidates for producing clean and renewable energy in recent years. In this study, inverted OSCs on stainless steel (SS) substrate with zinc oxide (ZnO) as the electron selective transport layer (ESTL), are investigated, occupying bulk heterojunction blend of regioregu...

Development of cost effective and efficient solar cells is a priority in studies of renewable energy. Cu2O comes with a promising photon to electron conversion efficiency of 20% with high absorbance properties as well as non-toxicity. Overall efficiency of Cu2O based solar cells has been kept quite low compared to the theoretical limit due to the l...

Background: Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) and Cu2O are two environmentally-friendly low-cost potential materials for applications in thin film solar cells. Electrodeposition is an attractive technique because of its simplicity, low-cost and easy to control the properties of the deposits. Objectives: Fabrication of CZTS/Cu2O heterojunction solar cell Methods: In...

CdCl2 treatment is crucial in the fabrication of highly efficient CdS/CdTe thin-film solar cells. This study reports a comprehensive analysis of thermal evaporated CdS/CdTe thin-film solar cells when the CdTe absorber layer is CdCl2 annealed at temperatures from 340 to 440 °C. Samples were characterized for structural, optical, morphological and el...

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have gained much popularity among researchers as possible candidate for fulfilment of future energy requirements. P3HT:PCBM based bulk heterojunction OSC is one of the most popular types. In this study, inverted P3HT:PCBM OSCs were fabricated on Stainless Steel (SS) substrate with and without ZnO layer in between the SS a...

A simple low-cost method to enhance the electrical properties including open-circuit voltage (VOC), flat-band potential (Vfb) and short-circuit current (ISC) in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell of cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films is presented. The PEC cell properties were determined using the configuration Pt/0.1 M Na2S2O3/CdS. Three different s...

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a suitable semiconducting material in fabrication for low-cost, eco-friendly semiconductor junction devices. Besides the parameterization of the growth conditions of Cu2O, formation of metal contacts impact the overall performance of these type of devices. The existence of unavoidable dangling bonds and/or dislocated surface...

ZnO is an inexpensive and non-toxic n-type semiconductor having band gap value of 3.4 eV. Itabsorbs UV radiation of the solar spectrum and allows to pass the long wavelength photons tothe absorber martial. Therefore, ZnO is a very good window material for solar cellapplications. Among the various ZnO deposition techniques, electrodeposition is an a...

A metal organic framework, MOF‐199, has been synthesized under solvothermal conditions. Powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD) pattern, Fourier‐transform infrared spectra (FT‐IR) and scanning electron microscopic images (SEM) confirmed the formation of the expected MOF‐199 structure. The semiconductor properties of MOF‐199 were then fine‐tuned by introduc...

In recent years, polymer based organic solar cells (OSCs) have received more academic and industrial attention as a potential candidate for producing clean and renewable energy. As an alternative for the conventional device structure, OSC devices with inverted structure were fabricated and characterized under top illumination. Regioregular poly (3-...

Employing cuprous oxide (Cu2O) photoelectrodes in photoelectrochemical cells to generate hydrogen by water splitting is beneficial. Conventionally, it is limited in practice because of the well-known reasons of its inherent corrosiveness and poor conversion efficiencies. In this study, we have investigated the possibility of improving the efficienc...

Cuprous oxide is a non-toxic low-cost photovoltaic material, which has the potential to replace expensive Si based solar cells. With the direct band gap of 2 eV, theoretical energy conversion efficiency of Cu2O is 20%. Even if the short circuit current density (Jsc) of Cu2O homojunction solar cells have been developed to the theoretical limit, open...

https://spast.org/techrep/article/view/2377

A surface modification technique is developed for electrodeposited n‐cuprous oxide (Cu2O) thin film electrodes to enhance water splitting in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. For this, Cu2O films are modified using ammonium sulfide vapor with a unique exposure condition to produce ultrathin sulfided surface layers. To ascertain the effect of surfa...

Increasing demand for manufacturing PV cells has directed scientists around the globe to investigate polymer based organic solar cells (OSCs) owing to their development in efficiency, cost, process, and stability. Moreover, in the recent years, OSCs with inverted structures have gained more attention compared to the conventional configuration of de...

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films were deposited using chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique on fluorine-doped tin oxide glass substrates. Cadmium sulfate, thiourea, and ammonium hydroxide were used as Cd source, S source, and the complexing agent, respectively in the reaction bath. The post-deposition CdCl2 activation of chemical bath deposited...

The deposition temperature of the bath in chemical-bath-deposited cadmium-sulfide thin films can directly affect the optical, electrical, structural as well as morphological properties of deposited thin films. The reporting work discusses the properties of chemical-bath-deposited cadmium-sulfide thin films deposited under steady chemical-bath tempe...

3D Coordination polymers (3D-CP) consisting of zinc and fumaric acid (FMA) were synthesized under solvothermal (ZnF-Sol) and reflux (ZnF-Ref) conditions with same Zn: FMA molar ratio in DMF. The structures and the properties of the 3D-CPs were found to be dependent of the synthesis method. Both 3D-CPs demonstrated wide band gap semiconductor proper...

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a well-known, abundant, low-cost, nontoxic, direct band gap solar energy material. Additionally, electrodeposition is a low-cost, simple, eco-friendly technique that can be used to grow Cu2O thin films in its both conductivity types. Indeed, interfacial mismatching at the p-n junction and contact resistances are responsible...

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a semiconductor material having the capability of producing a theoretical conversion efficiency of 20% which is acceptable for solar energy applications. In this investigation, we have explored the possibility of improving open circuit voltage (Voc) of Cu2O homojunctions by introducing a ZnO buffer layer in between n-and p-C...

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a relatively new environmentally friendly low cost absorber material for potential solar cell applications due to the abundance of initial component elements and promising optoelectronic properties. In this study, possibility of preparation of quaternary CZTS thin films on molybdenum (Mo) substrates were studied using single ste...

Development of Schottky junctions made with extremely cheap semiconductor material of electrodeposited cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a viable approach for the low cost solar energy applications. In this study, Cu2O/Au Schottky junctions were investigated for this purpose. Two pre-treatment processes annealing in air at 175 °Cfor 15 min duration and sulph...

Cadmium sulphide (CdS) thin films as the window material for solar cells were fabricated by two deposition procedures; chemical bath deposition (CBD) and electrodeposition (ED). The grazing incident x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) analysis shows that the fabricated electrodeposited CdS (ED-CdS) and chemical bath deposited CdS (CBD-CdS) are predominantly...

Cadmium sulphide (CdS) thin films as the window material for solar cells were fabricated by two deposition procedures; chemical bath deposition (CBD) and electrodeposition (ED). The grazing incident x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) analysis shows that the fabricated electrodeposited CdS (ED-CdS) and chemical bath deposited CdS (CBD-CdS) are predominantly...

Addressing the world energy demand by means of renewable energy will create pollution-free environment. Clean, free, abundant Sun's energy can be easily utilized through a simple electronic device structure called a solar cell. Even though the solar cells are presently commercialized, they cannot be afforded easily by the general public, as they ar...

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a promising candidate for application in low-cost and environmentally-friendly thin film solar cells due to its optoelectronics properties. It is a perfect absorber material for photovoltaic applications due to its high absorption coefficient (>10-4 cm-1) and direct optical bandgap (1.4-1.5 eV). Among the CZTS preparation techni...

Deposition mechanism of CBD-CdS is twofold; (a) ion-by-ion mechanism (at low bath temperatures) which produces smaller CdS clusters (b) cluster-by-cluster mechanism (at high bath temperatures) which results the formation of larger clusters of CdS [1,2]. Reporting work discusses the properties of CBD-CdS thin films fabricated under steady chemical b...

Improvements in electrodeposited cuprous oxide (Cu2O) junction devices could contribute to development of a wider range of affordable and environmentally friendly electronic devices. In this regard, ability of controlling interfacial properties of contacts of Cu2O thin films with other suitable materials will be a very important property. A study o...

Cd1−xZn x S (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) films were fabricated by chemical bath deposition method and characterized by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–visible spectroscopy and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. The flat-band potential value was found to be tunable from − 441 to − 664 mV with increasing Zn2+ concen...

Investigation of stage separators for a multi stage Peltier module with electrodeposited n-Cu2O and p-Cu2O semiconductors Study was carried out to investigate stage separators for multi-stage Peltier modules. Stage separators should be thermally conductive and electrically insulating materials. Ceramic wafers are commonly used commercial material...

For developing semiconductor junction devices with low cost electrodeposited cuprous oxide (Cu2O), it will be very useful to investigate possibilities to improve the interface properties of Cu2O with suitable junction materials. We have investigated the effect of electrodeposition bath pH on the interfacial properties of n-Cu2O/electrolyte, n-Cu2O/...

In this investigation, possibility of growth of nano structured CZTS thin films by sulphurisation of electrodeposited Cu, Sn and Zn stack layers using H2S has been explored. Electrodeposition parameters of Cu, Sn and Zn have been investigated by studying voltammetric curves. In order to grow photoactive CZTS thin films, set of identical Cu/Sn/Zn th...

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a promising candidate for application in low-cost and environmentally friendly thin film solar cells due to its optoelectronics properties. It is a perfect absorber material for photovoltaic applications due to its high absorption coefficient (>10-4 cm-1) and direct optical band gap (1.4 - 1.5 eV). Among the CZTS preparation tec...

Chemical bath deposition of CdS (CBD-CdS) thin films with the assistance of a cationic surfactant, ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), is reported in this work. Also the EDTA treated CdS thin films are compared with that of conventional CBD-CdS. Fabricated thin, compact, uniform and adherent EDTA-treated CdS films show enhanced effective surfa...

A novel method of fabricating chemical bath deposited CdS thin films (CBD-CdS) by using electrodeposited CdS (ED-CdS) as a seed layer is reported. The resulting thin, compact, uniform and adherent seed-assisted CdS films (ED/CBD-CdS) show enhanced effective surface area compared to both ED-CdS and CBD-CdS. The phase of these CdS films was determine...

In this study, possibility of growth of CuZnS thin films by sulphurisation of electrodeposited Cu and Zn stack layers using S powder has been investigated. Deposition parameters of Cu and Zn have been obtained by voltammograms. Set of identical Ti/Cu/Zn thin film electrodes having Cu/Zn ratio of 3.2 were prepared by maintaining the respective Cu a...

CdS thin films were grown on conducting glass substrates at different bath temperatures in order to investigate their influence on opto-electrical properties of the chemical bath deposited (CBD) CdS thin films. The CBD-CdS process was carried out with 0.001M CdSO4, 0.002M CS(NH2)2 and NH3 solution at different bath temperatures from 40 to 80 0C for...

A Cu2O homojunction solar cell was fabricated using a consecutive electrodeposition method of deposition of an n-Cu2O film followed by a p-Cu2O film, in two different acetate baths. Both n-type and p-type film growth conditions were optimized separately to yield high photocurrents in a photoelctrochemical (PEC) cell. Further, the resulted bi-layer...

Copper Zinc Sulphide (CuZnS) is a promising new absorber material for solar cell applications. Indeed, this material is very attractive for low cost device applications due to abundance and low cost of the staring materials. Very recently, a CuZnS based solar cell with In2S3 window material has been reported having Voc of 0.41 V, Jsc of 10.6 mA/cm2...

CdS is an imperative member of the II−VI group with comprehensive applications as gas sensors, photovoltaics, photodetectors and photochemistry, owing to its direct band gap, low work-function, high electronic mobility and excellent thermal and chemical stability. In this study, a novel method of fabricating chemical bath deposited CdS (CBD-CdS) by...

Capacitance-voltage (C-V) and modulated light-induced current-voltage measurements were employed to investigate the Cu2O/electrolyte junction of electrodeposited n-Cu2O thin films. The Mott-Schottky plots resulting from the C-V measurements revealed that the extrapolated flat-band potential of n-Cu2O films was strongly influenced by the pH of the b...

The tunability of the band-gap value and electron affinity of the n-CdS by adjusting the growth parameters is very important as it paves the way to improve the efficiency of CdS-based solar cells by adjusting the band lineup with other p-type semiconductors. In this respect, polycrystalline n-CdS thin films were grown on FTO glass substrates at dif...

Synthesis of CdS thin films, to be applied as the window layer of CdS/CdTe solar cells, was carried out using Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD). Films were deposited on flourine doped tin oxide coated glass slides, in a reaction vessel containing 0.001 M cadmium sulfate (CdSO 4), 0.002 M thiourea (CS[NH 2 ] 2) and ammonia solution (NH 3). Fabricated f...

Environmental friendly, low cost, and simple low power electrical energy source will improve the life style of the people living in developing countries where grid power is unavailable. In this respect, biodegradable plantain pith battery powered lighting system was developed. The galvanic cell was fabricated by sandwiching tissues made out of plan...

Electrodeposition technique is very useful for depositing n-type Cu2O thin films on various substrates. However, most of the reported n-type Cu2O thin film electrodes exhibit not only n-type photoactivity but also p-type photoactivity in photoelectrochemical cells. In this study, current–voltage characteristics and zero bias spectral response measu...

Celadon glazes have been investigated by means of an X-ray absorption spectrum (XAS) near a Fe-K edge by using synchrotron radiation and a Mössbauer spectrum. High-temperature treatments under CO-deoxidizing and oxidizing till about 1300 °C show the different glaze-color each other. The XAS analyses suggest that the deoxidized celadon glaze (Seiji...

Celadon glazes have been investigated by means of ordinary X-ray fluorescence analysis, and X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectra using synchrotron radiation. The tentative glazes are prepared by mixing raw celadon materials of Masuda feldspar, limestone, quartz, and extra-added Fe2O3 of about 1wt% at thermal treatment till about 1300 °C....

A number of locally available tubers/yams were studied as an electrolytic material for low cost environment friendly Galvanic cell. The cell was fabricated by sandwiching tissues made out of different types of tubers/yams slices between parallel Zn and Cu plates. A preliminary study revealed that cells made with plantain pith show comparatively...