Growth and Characterization of Seed-Assisted, EDTA-Treated, Chemical Bath-Deposited CdS

A simple low-cost method to enhance the electrical properties including open-circuit voltage ( V OC ), flat-band potential ( V fb ) and short-circuit current ( I SC ) in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell of cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films is presented. The PEC cell properties were determined usin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of electronic materials 2021-08, Vol.50 (8), p.4858-4865
Main Authors: Kumarage, W. G. C., Wijesundera, R. P., Seneviratne, V. A., Jayalath, C. P., Gunawardhana, N., Kaur, N., Comini, E., Dassanayake, B. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cadmium sulfide
Carrier density
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Circuits
Electric contacts
Electrical properties
Electronics and Microelectronics
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acids
Instrumentation
Materials Science
Open circuit voltage
Optical and Electronic Materials
Original Research Article
Short circuit currents
Sodium thiosulfate
Solid State Physics
Substrates
Surface area
Thin films
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Summary:A simple low-cost method to enhance the electrical properties including open-circuit voltage ( V OC ), flat-band potential ( V fb ) and short-circuit current ( I SC ) in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell of cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films is presented. The PEC cell properties were determined using the configuration Pt/0.1 M Na 2 S 2 O 3 /CdS. Three different sets of CdS thin films were grown: (a) chemical bath-deposited CdS (CBD-CdS), (b) electrodeposited seed-assisted CBD-CdS (ED/CBD-CdS) and (c) ED/CBD-CdS deposited under the presence of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in a reaction solution of CBD (ED/(CBD+EDTA)-CdS). The FE-SEM images suggested the formation of clusters with spherical shape in the presence of a seed layer. All the samples grown with seed layers demonstrated improved I SC and V OC values in the PEC cell compared to the CBD-CdS films due to better contact between the substrate and CBD-CdS. Furthermore, the carrier concentration ( N D ) and V fb were also found to improve due to the introduction of the seed layer. In the case of ED/(CBD+EDTA)-CdS, the cluster size was found to be smaller, giving rise to a larger effective surface area. The improved effective surface area, interparticle connections and adhesion of CdS to the FTO substrate resulted in superior electrical properties of ED/(CBD+EDTA)-CdS compared to ED/CBD-CdS and CBD-CdS films. Graphical Abstract
ISSN:0361-5235
1543-186X
DOI:10.1007/s11664-021-09032-1