Facile chemical bath deposition of CuS nano peas like structure as a high efficient counter electrode for quantum-dot sensitized solar cells

•First ever employment of CuS nano peas like structure CE by facile CBD deposition.•Efficiency of 4.01% was achieved using CuS CE.•Reported importance of deposition temperature for the preparation of CEs.•In this report, we have conducted stability test for CuS and Pt based films.

In this paper, highly efficient nano peas like structure CuS film has been successfully employed in quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) for its highest catalytic activity at minimal cost. The CuS thin film electrode was deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate by chemical bath deposition technique using urea at low deposition temperatures. This electrode elevated the short circuit current and fill factor in comparison to the frequently used Pt electrode. Moreover, electrochemical measurement data disclosed higher electrocatalytic activity toward polysulfide reduction. The CuS film exhibited an average particle size of 180–270 nm and film thickness of 825 nm. It also revealed superior Jsc (13.87 mA/cm2) and conversion efficiency of 4.01% which is remarkably higher than that of the Pt-based cell (1.07%). In addition, stability test conducted for both CuS and Pt-based cells for about 900 min at working conditions affirmed that the long-term stability of the CuS film decreased by 16.66% (4.02–3.35%), while that of the Pt based cell got elevated by 24.29% until 700 min, and consequently diminished by 8.27% from 700 to 900 min.

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