Abstract
This paper highlights the inconvenience of sodium ions in the Bi2S3 quantum dots (QDs) deposition procedure, on the TiO2 surface, for the conversion efficiency of the sensitized solar cells derived from these materials. Porous TiO2 electrodes were sensitized with QDs obtained by the successive ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique, using aqueous solutions of Bi(NO3)3 as the cation precursor and Na2S as the sulfide source. Independently, elemental sulfur vapor was used to replace the Na2S solution in the synthesis procedure. The obtained layers were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Raman scattering, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. We found that the presence of sodium ions in the reaction system strongly affects the formation of Bi2S3 on the porous TiO2. This result contrasts with what other authors have claimed. Using elemental sulfur vapor as a precursor, crystalline Bi2S3 nanoparticles are formed on the TiO2 surface. The sensitized solar cells produced using the two different types of photoelectrodes were compared based on the photocurrent–voltage characteristic and the photocurrent time stability. The sensitized photoelectrodes derived from elemental sulfur vapor are much more stable over time and can achieve an efficiency of 0.84%. This is the highest conversion efficiency value for any Bi2S3 photoelectrochemical cell.
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