CdTe polycrystalline films on Ni foil substrates by screen printing and their photoelectric performance

•The sintered CdTe polycrystalline films by a simple screen printing.•The flexible Ni foil was chose as substrates to reduce the weight of the electrode.•The compact CdTe film was obtained at 550 °C sintering temperature.•The photoelectric activity of the CdTe polycrystalline films was excellent.

CdTe polycrystalline films were prepared on flexible Ni foil substrates by sequential screen printing and sintering in a nitrogen atmosphere for the first time. The effect of temperature on the quality of the screen-printed film was investigated in our work. The high-quality CdTe films were obtained after sintering at 550 °C for 2 h. The properties of the sintered CdTe films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern and UV–visible spectroscopy. The high-quality CdTe films have the photocurrent was 2.04 mA/cm2, which is higher than that of samples prepared at other temperatures. Furthermore, CdCl2 treatment reduced the band gap of the CdTe film due to the larger grain size. The photocurrent of photoelectrode based on high crystalline CdTe polycrystalline films after CdCl2 treatment improved to 2.97 mA/cm2, indicating a potential application in photovoltaic devices.