The effect of electrochemical conditions on morphology and properties of Bi2Se3 thick films by electrodeposition

• The effect of deposition potential on morphology of films was investigated.
• The forming reasons of the morphology were explained by nucleation theory.
• The effect of electrochemical conditions to thermoelectric properties was evaluated.

Electrodeposition of Bi2Se3 thick films on ITO-coated glass in a nitric acid solution bath was investigated. The electrodeposition kinetics and the influence of electrodeposition conditions on the composition, crystallographic structure, and microstructure of the films were studied. The mechanisms of deposition and nucleation were discussed. In addition, the thermoelectric properties were studied. The results show that the as-deposited films were pure Bi2Se3 films. The 2:3 stoichiometric ratio of the deposits were further verified by EDS quantitative analysis. The P-type semiconductors were confirmed by the Seebeck coefficient measurement. Also, the power factors, 46.65 and 52.57 μW/(m K2) of the as-deposited films were obtained by properties measurement.