Electrodeposition of mesoporous CdTe through an inverse cubic lyotropic liquid crystal template Joshua White 1,3,4 , Jack Macklin 2 , Stephen Williams 2 , Wanli Liu 2 , Adam Squires 2 , Nick Terrill 3 , Diego Alba-Venero 4 , Iris Nandhakumar 1 . 1 University of Southampton, UK, 2 University of Bath, UK, 3 Diamond Light Source, UK 4 Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK A previously established technique of electrodeposition through an inverse cubic phase (“double diamond”) lyotropic liquid crystal, 1-3 has been used to create 3D nanostructured CdTe thin films for the first time. CdTe was the semiconductor of interest due it’s bandgap of 1.45 eV which has a near ideal bandgap for the theoretical maximum photovoltaic conversion efficiency. Stoichiometric mesoporous CdTe thin films have been fabricated with single diamond structure (Fig.1), which has been confirmed by small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The resulting nanostructure has a lattice parameter of 20.6 0.2 nm, an average wire diameter of (5.3 0.2 nm) and an average pore width of (9.2 0.2 nm). The thin films have been characterised by SEM, XRD and EDX. EDX revealed that the as-deposited films were stoichiometric with a composition of 48% Cd and 52% Te with an error 2%. In-situ SAXS during electrodeposition has been performed in a custom-made 3D printed cell on the I22 beamline at the Diamond Light Source in which the interplay between the soft-template and the depositing CdTe can be monitored. The architecture is expected to enhance its photovoltaic properties due to increased light trapping and improved collection of the photogenerated carriers as every atom is at or near the surface, which will be investigated through UV-VIS spectroscopy, reflectivity and PEC analysis
Figure.1 Schematic diagram of the single diamond CdTe structure created in MATLAB. References 1. M. Burton, A. Selvam, J. Lawrie-Ashton, A. Squires, N. Terrill, I. Nandhakumar, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2018, 10, 43 , 37087–37094 2. M. Burton, C. Lei, P. Staniec, N. Terrill, A. Squires. N. White, I. Nandhakumar, Sci. Rep., 2017, 7 , 5–10. 3. S. Akbar, J. Boswell, S. Waters, S. Williams, J. Elliott, A. Squires, ACS Appl. Nano Mater., 2021, 4 , 5717-5725
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