LAUSR

The cadmium sulfide/polyvinyl alcohol (CdS/PVA) nanocomposite thin films were prepared on a glass substrate by dip coating method. The prepared samples were annealed at 323, 373 and 423 K, respectively, and one sample was prepared without annealing and all the nanostructured thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive analysis of X-ray diffraction (EDAX), UV–Vis spectrophotometer (UV–Vis), photoluminescence (PL) spectra and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). The XRD result reveals hexagonal structure of nanocomposites with a different grain size. The SEM images indicated that the both films were homogeneous with smooth surface, but among this samples the annealed sample 373 K is given better result. The elemental compositions of the both as-prepared and annealed CdS/PVA nanocomposites were analyzed by EDAX. The effect of quantum confinement and the shifts in optical bandgap were calculated from the PL spectra and UV–Vis spectra. From the shift in optical bandgap, the sizes of the particles were calculated. FTIR analysis clearly showed the formation of polymer matrix grown CdS/PVA thin films. The CdS/PVA thin film annealed at 373 K was found to be more appropriate to window layer in solar cell application.