Room Temperature Pulse Electrodeposition of CdS Thin Films for Application in Solar Cells and Photoelectrochemical Cells

Abstract

Polycrystalline CdS thin films comprising of hexagonal crystal structure are successfully fabricated by pulse electrodeposition using a two-electrode system at room temperature. The method utilizes tartaric acid as a complexing agent for the first time that minimizes the formation of colloidal sulfur while optimizing the deposition potential and avoids conventional post-deposition heat-treatment step. Additionally, deposition time is varied to obtain the desired thickness of CdS films suitable for application in thin films solar cells. Pulse electrodeposited CdS films are comprehensively characterized using SEM, XRD and micro-Raman analyses unveiling the stoichiometric polycrystalline hexagonal CdS films. The bandgap is determined to be around 2.4 eV from optical studies. Flat-band potential and carrier density are inferred to be −0.82 V vs SCE and 8.51 × 10 18 cm −3 , respectively, from the Mott-Schottky analysis. Photoelectrochemical studies show a photocurrent density of about 0.2 mA/cm 2 at 0.2 V vs SCE for the optimized films, which is competent with previously reported values. These pulse electrodeposited CdS films prepared without any high-temperature treatment are of high quality with desirable properties and are suitable for application in thin films solar cells and photoelectrochemical cells.

Efficient Cr(vi) photoreduction under natural solar irradiation using a novel step-scheme ZnS/SnIn4S8 nanoheterostructured photocatalysts

“…Mott–Schottky plots for ZnS and SnIn 4 S 8 NPs revealed a positive slope trend which is an indication for their n-type nature. 28 And their ZnS/SnIn 4 S 8 nanoheterostructure revealed a n–n heterojunction as shown in Fig. 8 .…”

Times effect on morphological, structural and optical behaviors of cds thin films for photoelectrochemical cells application

“…J Fundam Appl Sci. 2022, 14 (3), 548-566 552 potential of 0.599 vs. SCE. Whereas, the cathodic electroreduction peak potential of sulfur is observed at 0.395 vs. SCE.…”

“…Nowadays, many studies focused on thin films solar cells such as ZnS [1], ZnSe [2], CdS [3], etc. In these solar cells, to form a p-n junction an n-type buffer layer is constituted.…”

“…It is well known that CdS has a wide band gap semiconductor and has a band gap energy of 2.42~ eV, high transmittance as well as high absorption coefficient [3,9,10]. To improve the optical transmission and to reduce reflection from cell surface, it is recommended to keep CdS as thin as possible (≈100-200 nm), [3,11] because, it has lower refractive index compared to the p-type material.…”

Optical and Morphological Studies of Electrodeposited CdS Thin Film Grown at Different Deposition Times from Acetate Precursor

“…[36][37][38][39] In the literature, electrodeposited CdS (ED-CdS) thin films usually involve, the use of cadmium chloride (CdCl 2 ), cadmium niz E-mail: solomonwerta@gmail.com trate (Cd(NO 3 ) 2 ) and cadmium sulfate (CdSO 4 ) as cadmium precursors and thiourea (NH 2 CSNH 2 ) ammonium thiosulfate ((NH 4 ) 2 S 2 O 3 ) and sodium thiosulfate (Na 2 S 2 O 3 ) as sulfur precursors. 24,40,41 However, the use of cadmium acetate Cd(CH 3 COO) 2 , as Cd precursor, is not common in electrodeposition method although it is a familiar precursor in chemical bath deposition. Hence, this paper aimed to focus on two things: (i) The application of cadmium acetate as Cd precursor in the electrodeposition of CdS thin films for possible solar cell applications using two-electrode set-up.…”