Synthesis with Structural and Morphological Study of n-Cu2O Layer Produced by Immersion, Boiling and Chemical Bath Heating Techniques of Electroless Deposition Method

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) thin films with n-type conductivity are prepared on copper plate using CuSO4 solution by the immersion, boiling and the chemical bath heating techniques of Electroless Chemical Deposition Method of Depositing n-Cu2O. The films produced were analyzed using SEM and XRD machines. The results shows that the film produced by chemical bath method is purely Cu2O layer with peaks at different diffraction angles ranging from 2 without any CuO impurity and is composed of grains of different sizes which were improved by annealing the samples at 250. On the other hand the film produced by boiling method has larger grains size with CuO impurity at 2o. while the film produced by immersion techniques has Grain sizes larger than that of chemical bath techniques and smaller than that of boiling technique with CuO impurity at 2 = 48.62o. The implication of varying the deposition time in the boiling and chemical bath heating technique with the variation in the pH level of the immersion technique were analyzed. The result shows that there was dissolution of the oxide layer for boiling at boiling time above one hour in the boiling method while there was no dissolution of the oxide in the case of the immersion and chemical bath heating method. However, it was discovered that the growth rate is dependent on the solution pH. Its was also found that at pH 12.30 there was formation of CuO on the sample deposited by immersion technique and show no reaction on that of boiling and chemical bath heating technique. These ensure the true deposition of purely Cu2O layer without any CuO impurities in chemical bath heating techniques only.