Hydrothermal synthesis of CdIn2S4 nanostructures using new starting reagent for elevating solar cells efficiency

In this study, various micro/nanostructures of CdIn2S4 were successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method utilizing new starting reagent. The crystal structure, morphology, composition, and optical properties of the CdIn2S4 nanostructures were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, DRS and FT-IR techniques. Moreover, the reaction terms influencing the formation of CdIn2S4 nanostructures, such as reaction time and temperature, indium, sulfur and cadmium sources, as well as surfactant and solvent type were well studied and by introducing Cd-PMP, extracted from pomegranate mart peels by Cd(II), as new starting reagent, a simple route to synthesize CdIn2S4 nanoparticles was presented. Finally, efficiency of various as-synthesized CdIn2S4 nanostructures in thin layer solar cells was evaluated. The results showed that structures size and morphology have salient effect on solar cells efficiency and the prepared nanoparticles using Cd-PMP as new precursor have highest efficiency (similar to 30% improvement). Also, utilizing the prepared CdIn2S4 nanoparticles as barrier layer in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) presented remarkable enhancement in efficiency (similar to 19%) of solar cells compared to other used samples. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.