Synthesis and photoelectrochemical behavior of nanocrystalline CdS film electrodes

In this paper, we prepared the nanocrystalline CdS films on the indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates using a doctor-blade technique. The source CdS powder was first prepared by a hydrothermal method and then ground into a screen-printing paste by adding ethyl cellulose as a binder and terpineol as a solvent. The CdS samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. A photocurrent of 3.51 mA/cm2, a fill factor of 0.44, an open circuit photovoltage of 0.50 V, and a conversion efficiency of 2.2% were obtained under a simulated solar illumination of 35 mW/cm2, when the CdS film was annealed at 380 °C in air for 30 min. The maximum quantum efficiency of 5.5% was obtained at an incident wavelength of 500 nm. Our method provides a general way to prepare electrodes of metal chalcogenide nanocrystalline films.