A CdS:Sb photoelectrode for photoelectrochemical applications

Abstract

CdS:Sb thin film photoelectrodes with antimony doping concentration in the range from 0.005-0.5 wt.% have been prepared in an aqueous alkaline medium. Photo-electrochemical cells are then fabricated employing these films as an active photoelectrode and the sulphide/polysulphide redox couple as electrolyte. The electrical and optical properties of these cells have been examined under suitable conditions and evaluated in terms of various cell parameters such as isc, Voc, eta , ff, Rs, Rsh, nd Phi B and Vfb. It has been found that the cell performance is improved significantly after doping and it is optimum at 0.075 wt.% Sb doping level in CdS. The incremental enhancement in the various properties of a cell is explained on the basis of the modified electrical, optical and structural properties of the thin film compositions.

Photovoltaic Studies of Cd1-xCoxS Based Electrochemical Cells

“…less crystallite size, irregular morphology, etc) than conventional solid state junction, reducing the demands on the semiconductor itself. This is the greatest advantage that LPCBD films have often been employed as semiconductor photoelectrodes 12,19,25 . Although technology of solar photovoltaics is well developed, there is a need to search new materials and matchable electrolyte systems or novel structures to enhance the efficiency and stability to an acceptable limit for competing the existing sources of electricity generation.…”

“…One of the main challenges in solar energy research is to search for new advanced solar materials and to fabricate and develop a new methodology that can produce high quality thin films at low production cost and should yield stable module efficiency. To achieve these goals, a variety of newer solar materials were proposed and many methods and hybrids thereof have been fabricated /developed with a focus on their high performance throughput and lower costs for the thin film solar cells [1][2][3][4][5][12][13][14][15] . Metal chalcogenides are proved to be the strong contender and have attracted a considerable attention owing to their efficient energy conversion ratio 1-6, 13, 16, 17 .…”

“…Deposition using chemical bath is reported to be more advantageous than others 12,16,17,19,[23][24][25][26] ; because it is the conventional method with the advantages of economy, convenience, ease of scaling up to large area deposition and high degree of composition control 12,17,19,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29] . Cadmium sulfide and cobalt sulfide seems to be very promising among the chalcogenides because they have the direct band gaps of 2.42 eV and 1.10 eV respectively, high photosensitivity in the visible region of the spectrum, high coefficients of optical absorption and excellent stability with its n-type semiconductor characteristics 9,12,17,21,24,[30][31][32][33][34][35] . Further, both the end materials out of the series can be synthesized under the same conditions of preparation procedure and a variety of alloyed/mixed materials of the Cd 1-x Co x S kind with tailor made properties can be generated with ease and without the use of sophisticated instrumentation [16][17][18]21,22,35 .…”

“…Further, both the end materials out of the series can be synthesized under the same conditions of preparation procedure and a variety of alloyed/mixed materials of the Cd 1-x Co x S kind with tailor made properties can be generated with ease and without the use of sophisticated instrumentation [16][17][18]21,22,35 . These materials are therefore, of extremely importance for efficient use in optronic devices, especially in solar cell applications 12,[16][17][18]22,29,30,35 . It was therefore proposed to synthesize CdS, CoS and Cd 1-x Co x S (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) thin films under the same conditions of preparation using a liquid phase chemical bath deposition (LPCBD) method and to apply them for photovoltaic conversion through electrochemical photovoltaic cells.…”

Structural, opto-electronic and photoelectrochemical properties of tungsten diselenide thin films

“…8. The characteristics are non-symmetrical indicating the formation of the rectifying type of junction (Deshmukh and Holikatti 1994). The Butler-Volmer relation can be applied to the tungsten diselenide electrolyte interface and the observed magnitude of the symmetry factor shows rectifying Schottky type of junction.…”