Photoelectrochemical solar cells with chemically grown CdO rice grains on flexible stainless steel substrates

The cadmium oxide (CdO) thin films were synthesized by novel successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method on cost effective stainless steel substrates. The porous rice grain like morphology of CdO was obtained with 500 nm grain size, well suitable for solar cell application. Raman and X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the formation of polycrystalline cubic CdO thin film. The CdO rice grains showed absorbance in the visible region with direct band gap of 2.50 eV after annealing the films at 673 K. The light to electricity conversion efficiency of 0.46% with maximum 74.5% fill factor was achieved for CdO on stainless steel substrate in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) study. These results designate that chemically synthesized CdO rice grains could be greatly utilized in PEC application. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.