Electrochemical deposition of CdSe-sensitized TiO2 nanotube arrays with enhanced photoelectrochemical performance for solar cell application

• Published in: Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics
• Main Author: Ayal A.K.; Zainal Z.; Lim H.-N.; Talib Z.A.; Lim Y.-C.; Chang S.-K.; Samsudin N.A.; Holi A.M.; Amin W.N.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer New York LLC 2016
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84957608510&doi=10.1007%2fs10854-016-4414-8&partnerID=40&md5=d35a14f58207553b59d0897a07634f8d

Particular interest has been given to the self-organized titania nanotube TiO2 thin films prepared by using anodisation method followed by annealing in the air, while the CdSe layer was potentiostatically electrodeposited onto the TiO2 nanotube films at various pH. The resulting films were studied by using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, UV–Vis spectroscopy and photoelectrochemical analysis to characterize their compositional, crystalline structure, surface morphological, optical, and photoconversion efficiency characteristics. The resulting CdSe/TiO2 nanotube exhibits significant enhancement in optical absorption, photocurrent density and photoconversion efficiency. CdSe/TiO2 nanotube prepared at pH 3 exhibited the highest photocurrent density of 2.13 mA cm−2 and photoconversion efficiency of 1.02 % which is 51 times higher than TiO2 nanotube array. This may due to the formation of CdSe nanocrystals which were well crystallized and bonded with TiO2 NTAs contributing to the enhanced photoresponse and photostability of the overall performance of CdSe/TiO2 NTAs heterostructures. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.