In situ grown silver bismuth sulfide nanorod arrays and their application to solar cells

AgBiS₂ nanorod arrays are grown directly on a substrate by a simple in situ preparation method in this work. TEM characterization shows that a single nanorod is 50 nm in diameter and 180 nm in length. Additionally, the nanostructured AgBiS₂ film has a useful band gap (∼1.0 eV) with a very high absorption coefficient (10⁵ cm^-1). By applying these nanorods to photovoltaic devices, an efficiency of 1.4% is achieved. This simple preparation method provides a new route for the synthesis of nanostructured materials.