Study of photovoltaic performance of Sb 2 S 3 /CdS quantum dot co-sensitized solar cells fabricated using iodine-based gel polymer electrolytes

In this study, cadmium sulfide (CdS) and antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) quantum dot (QD) co-sensitized solar cells were fabricated using iodine-based gel polymer electrolytes. It was noticed that in comparison with TiO2/Sb2S3 QDs, the short-circuit current (Jsc) and the photoconversion efficiency (η) of the fabricated photovoltaic device based on TiO2/CdS/Sb2S3 QDs increased from 5.61 to 8.35 mA/cm2 and 1.06–1.61%, respectively. The presence of a CdS buffer layer between TiO2 and Sb2S3 was attributed to the enhancement of Jsc and η. The CdS buffer layer promoted the growth of Sb2S3 and facilitated the transfer of electrons from Sb2S3 to TiO2 through the reorganization of band levels between CdS and Sb2S3. It was also observed that the polymer electrolytes effectively prevented the corrosion of Sb2S3 QDs. Therefore, it can be concluded that the outcomes of this research could expedite future work on novel Sb2S3 quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) based on polymer electrolytes with improved performance.