Enhanced synthesis of cadmium sulfide by electrodeposition in dye-sensitized solar cells

Cadmium sulfide thin film (CdSTF) and cadmium sulfide nanoparticles (CdSNPs) were fabricated by using a simple electrodeposition (ECD) and chemical bath deposition (CBD) respectively. The morphology, phase composition, and structure were investigated by employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Their optical absorption capability and the electrical properties were also studied. The organic/inorganic hybrid solar cell devices were fabricated based on CdSTF and CdSNPs with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxyl-thiophene)/poly (styrene-sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). CdSTF has the potential for enhanced the performance in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) due to its improvable charge carrier collection. The experimental results showed the improved efficiency in cadmium sulfide thin film with titanium dioxide (CdSTF-TiO2) has reached 2.7%. This is much better than (CdSNPs-TiO2) with efficiency 0.86% under similar conditions. This study demonstrates that electrodeposition is a promising technique for large-scale fabrication, of CdSTF, in DSSCs.