Green Synthesis and Electrical Properties of p-CuO/n-ZnO Heterojunction Diodes

Green production of nanomaterials and their materials properties studies are majorly important for the futuristic development of nanodevices. We had green synthesized the ZnO and CuO nanoparticles using the extract of “Eucalyptus globulus ” leaves. The obtained ZnO and CuO nanoparticles were studied for their structural, morphological and optical properties. The green synthesized CuO and ZnO nanoparticles have showed the crystalline size of about 12.29 and 10.16 nm. The transmission electron microscopic images of green synthesized ZnO and CuO nanoparticles revealed the morphological information and their respective average sizes of 46 and 32 nm. Optical absorbance spectrum revealed the existence of morphology based quantum confinement in the green ZnO and CuO nanoparticles. Further we have fabricated the p-CuO/n-ZnO heterojunction device using the green synthesized nanoparticles and also evaluated the electrical properties of the p–n junction diode. Under the light illumination the photodiode characteristic were studied for the obtained p–n junction diode. Finally, the energy band diagram of the photodiode responsible for the electronic transport had also discussed. Graphical Abstract