Compared to rigid CdS/glass electrodes, flexible pristine CdS electrodes have not been described in photoelectrochemical (PEC) based light-to-electricity conversions, despite wide descriptions of their preparations and characterizations. CdS film electrodes, deposited on flexible tin-doped indium oxide/polyethyleneterephthalate (ITO/PET) substrates, have been prepared here by both chemical bath deposition (CBD) and electrochemical deposition (ECD). The film PEC characteristics have been investigated here. With a very low thickness, the flexible ECD-CdS electrode fails to show measurable PEC performance. On the other hand, with higher film thickness, the CBD flexible electrode shows soundly high PEC performance. To further improve PEC characteristics of the flexible CBD-CdS/ITO/PET electrodes, various parameters have been varied, such as number of deposition cycles, annealing temperature, cooling rate and type of redox couple. Among the studied films, the four-layered CBD-CdS/ITO/PET film, annealed at 125 °C and quickly cooled, exhibits highest PEC performance and stability, with conversion efficiency higher than 1.2% in polysulfide redox couple. The results show that the flexible CBD-CdS/ITO/PET electrode may compete with earlier rigid CdS film electrodes deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide/glass substrate.

Title

Material Chemistry and Physics

Publisher

Elsevier

Publisher Country

Netherlands

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

4.778

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

--

Year

2022

Pages

126967