Combined electrochemical-chemical bath deposited metal selenide nano-film electrodes with high photo-electrochemical characteristics

Metal selenide poly-crystalline film electrodes with enhanced photo-electrochemical characteristics can be deposited by electrochemical then by chemical bath depositions onto glass/fluorine doped tinoxide substrates. The resulting film electrode shows the advantages of both electrochemical deposition (film uniformity and adhesion) and chemical bath deposition (suitable thickness). The two systems have been examined, and both showed enhanced conversion efficiency values. The copper selenide electrode showed ∼4.5% efficiency while the cadmium selenide showed ∼14% efficiency), both of which are much higher than earlier reported values for metal chalcogenide film electrodes. Other photo-electrochemical characteristics such as fill factor, film stability and short-circuit photocurrent density, have also been enhanced by the combined deposition. Moreover, the as-prepared films exhibited enhancement with no need for further treatment.