Facile hydrothermal synthesis of dendritic Cu2S nanostructures using novel starting reagents and investigation of their behavior in solar cells

In the present study, dendritic Cu2S nanostructures were successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal route using cysteine as a capping agent, sulfide source, and reducing agent for converting Cu2+ to Cu+ and [Cu(en)2(H2O)2]Cl2 complex as a new copper precursor. The effect of temperature, reaction time, and cysteine concentration on the morphology and particle size was also investigated. Moreover, efficiency of as-synthesized Cu2S nanostructures in thin-film solar cells was evaluated. The results showed that particle size and morphology have salient effect on solar cells efficiency and dendritic Cu2S nanostructures have higher efficiency compared to spherical and rod-like Cu2S nanostructures. In addition, depositing of dendritic Cu2S on Cu2S nanoparticles led to obtaining 3.02% cell efficiency that in comparison with sole dendritic nanostructures (2.15%) and sole nanoparticles (1.62%), efficiency improvements of 40 and 86% were, respectively, achieved.