Synthesis and properties of polyamide-Ag2S composite based solar energy absorber surfaces.

Ag2S, an efficient solar light absorber, was synthesized using a modified chem. bath deposition (CBD) method and polyamide 6 (PA) as a host material via soln. phase reaction between AgNO3 and Na2S2O3. XRD data showed a single, α-Ag2S (acanthite), cryst. phase present while surface and bulk chem. analyses, performed using XPS and EDS spectroscopies, showed 2:1 Ag:S ratio. Direct and indirect bandgaps obtained from Tauc plots were 1.3 and 2.3 eV, resp. Detailed surface chem. anal. showed 3 distinct S species with majority component due to the Ag2S chem. bonds and minority components due to 2 types of O-S bonds. Cond. of the resulting composite material was shown to change with the reaction time thus enabling to obtain controlled cond. composite material. The synthesis method presented is based on the low soly. of Ag2S and is potentially green, no byproduct producing, as all Ag2S nucleated outside the host material can be recycled into the process via dissolving it in HNO3. [on SciFinder(R)]