Nanophase CuInS2 nanosheets/CuS composite grown by the SILAR method leads to high performance as a counter electrode in dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Single phase CuInS₂ (CIS) nanosheets are synthesized on TiO₂ coated FTO by the simple technique of Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption Reaction (SILAR) followed by annealing at 500 °C. Annealing at a lower temperature of 250 °C is found to yield CuS nanoparticles in addition to the CIS phase. Both single phase CIS and the CuS/CIS nanocomposite were examined as counter electrodes for a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The CIS–CuS composite is found to have a synergistic effect on the catalytic performance toward the reduction of tri-iodide, yielding a power conversion efficiency of 6.3% as compared to pristine CIS (5%) or CuS (3.5%). The possible reasons behind the high performance of the composite are elucidated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).