A B S T R A C T Electrodeposited CuSe film electrodes have been prepared onto FTO/glass by a facile method based on earlier methods described for other systems. The films were characterized, modified by annealing and further characterized. The films were then modified by coating with tetra(-4-pyridyl) pophyrinatomanganese (MnTPyP) complexes embedded inside commercial polyethylene (PE) matrices. The effects of modifications on different film properties, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, surface morphology, photoluminescence (PL) spectra and electronic absorption spectra were investigated. Compared with other thin film electrode systems, very high photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion efficiency values have been observed here. Pre-annealing the CuSe films at 150
C for 2 h, followed by attaching the MnTPyP/PE matrices remarkably enhanced their PEC characteristics. The conversion efficiency was significantly enhanced, from less than 1.0% to more than 15%. Fill factor (FF) was also enhanced from 30% to 80%. Values of open-circuit potential (VOC) and short-circuit current (JSC) were significantly enhanced. While annealing affects uniformity, particle inter-connection and surface texture of the CuSe films, the MnTPyP complex species behaves as an additional charge-transfer mediator across the film/ electrolyte junction. Optimization of PEC characteristics, using different deposition times, different annealing temperatures, different annealing times and different redox couples, was also investigated

Title

Electrochimica Acta

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Publisher Country

Palestine

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

None

Publication Type

Prtinted only

Volume

174

Year

2015

Pages

8