Enhancement in incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of manganese-decorated activated carbon-supported cadmium sulfide nanocomposite

Abstract

In the current study, cadmium sulfide (CdS), activated carbon (AC)-supported CdS (CdS/AC) and manganese (Mn)-decorated CdS/AC semiconductor materials fabricated by the chemical precipitation method are used as sensitizers and the incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) values of the obtained semiconductor-based solar cell structures are evaluated. The fabricated semiconductor materials, which provide the best IPCE value, are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). SEM images of the Mn-decorated CdS/AC semiconductor material showed that CdS and Mn settled in the mesopores, forming a homogeneous microporous structure on the surface. Based on the XRD, EDX and XPS analysis findings, it is concluded that CdS, CdS/AC and Mn-decorated CdS/AC semiconductor materials are successfully fabricated. The optimum concentration of CdS with a maximum IPCE (%) is found as 10% (for CdS/AC). An extraordinary increase in IPCE (%) of 3% Mn-decorated 10% CdS/AC semiconductor material (from 4.70 to 55.09%) is observed compared to pure CdS. Thus, the ability to increase the photovoltaic efficiency of CdS-based solar cells, which are widely used in photovoltaic applications, with AC support has been clearly demonstrated. The findings of this study indicates that Mn-decorated CdS/AC fabrication is an effective strategy to greatly increase the IPCE (%) and Mn-decorated CdS/AC is a promising nanocomposite to improve solar cell efficiency of semiconductor-based solar cell structures.