Excellent growth of ZnS shell on Ag2S QDs using a photochemical-microwave irradiation approach and fabrication of their indoor QD thin film solar cells

In this report, a new two pots method using microwave-photochemical approaches was suggested for the fabrication of Ag2S@ZnS core-shells. UV-Vis and photoluminescence spectroscopies clearly proved the growth of ZnS shell on Ag2S cores. X-ray diffraction, Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy also indicated the formation of core-shell structure. To identify excellence growth of ZnS shell, Ag2S@ZnS core-shells were implemented for the fabrication of thin film solar cells. The fabricated cells showed a J-V character with 0.4%, 1 mA.cm−2 and 0.43 V and 54% as efficiency, JSC, VOC and fill factor, respectively. The cells showed also an increasing efficiency up to 0.8% upon the decrease of incident solar intensity to 10% of its standard. The results proved the cells are stable under sun light illumination that is promising for environmentally friendly fabrication of QD thin film solar cells.