Impact of Polyamide Surface Preparation on the Formation of Mixed CdS-CdTe Layers

Abstract

CdTe-CdS layers were formed on polyamide (PA) 6 films with different surface modifications using the sorption-diffusion method. Part of the samples of the PA films was boiled in distilled water for 2 h and the other ones were stored in concentrated acetic acid at 20 °C for 0.5 h. After this stage, all the PA 6 films were chalcogenized at 20 °C for 1 or 5 h using an acidified 0.1 mol/L solution of K2TeS4O6. Then, the chalcogenized samples were treated with a 0.1 mol/L solution of cadmium acetate at 70, 80 or 90 °C for 10 min. The elemental and phase composition and the morphological and optical properties of the obtained films were determined. XRD analysis showed that cadmium chalcogenide layers consist of four phases: hexagonal CdTe, orthorhombic CdS, rhombohedral Te and orthorhombic S18. The average crystallite size among the obtained layers was very similar and was in the range of 36–42 nm. The concentrations of cadmium, sulfur and tellurium in the layers on PA 6 and the optical properties of the CdTe-CdS layers were dependent on the method of preparation of the polyamide film, the duration of chalcogenization and the temperature of the Cd(CH3COO)2 solution.