PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL BEHAVIOR OF COUPLED SNO2-VERTICAL-BAR-CDSE NANOCRYSTALLINE SEMICONDUCTOR-FILMS

A photoelectrochemical cell with a coupled SnO2\CdSe nanocrystalline s emiconductor electrode has been prepared by sequential deposition of S nO2 and CdSe films onto an optically transparent electrode (OTE), and its photoelectrochemical behavior has been studied. The results show t hat the coupling of CdSe with SnO2 leads to an improvement in the perf ormance of OTE\SnO2\CdSe over OTE\CdSe cells in terms of increased inc ident photon-to-current conversion efficiency, increased stability and smaller reversal of current. The favorable positioning of the energy bands of Sn(O)2 and CdSe is responsible for the above observations. Va rious photoelectrochemical parameters of the OTE\SnO2\CdSe cell obtain ed for an incident light power of 0.31mW cm(-2) at 470nm, are as follo ws: I-sc approximate to 25-30 mu A cm(-2), V-oc approximate to 0.5-0.6 V, ff = 0.47 and a power conversion efficiency of about 2.25%.