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

Abstract In this study, various micro/nanostructures of CdIn 2 S 4 were successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method utilizing new starting reagent. The crystal structure, morphology, composition, and optical properties of the CdIn 2 S 4 nanostructures were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, DRS and FT-IR techniques. Moreover, the reaction terms influencing the formation of CdIn 2 S 4 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 marc peels by Cd(II), as new starting reagent, a simple route to synthesize CdIn 2 S 4 nanoparticles was presented. Finally, efficiency of various as-synthesized CdIn 2 S 4 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 (~ 30% improvement). Also, utilizing the prepared CdIn 2 S 4 nanoparticles as barrier layer in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) presented remarkable enhancement in efficiency (~ 19%) of solar cells compared to other used samples.