PNNL

Abstract

It is found that electrocatalytic activity of Cu2-xS thin films used in quantum dots sensitized solar cells (QDSSC) as countner electrode (CE) for the reduction of polysulfide electrolyte depends on the the surface active sulfur species and defficiency of Cu. The preferential bonding between Cu2+ and S2- leading to the selective formation of Cu1.8S stacked platelets like morphology is determined by Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide surfactant with temperature and crab like Cu-S coordination bond formed dictates the surface area to volume ratio of the Cu1.8S thin films and the electrocatalytic activity. The Cu deficiency enhances the conductivity of the Cu1.8S thin films and exhibits near- infrared localized surface plasmon resonanc due to free carrier intraband absorption and UV-VIS absorption spectra shows excitonic effect due to quantum size effect. When these Cu1.8S thin films were employed as CE in QDSSC, robust photoconversion efficiency of 5.2 % is yielded by the film deposited at 60 °C by a sinlge step chemical bath deposition method.