Study of formation of cadmium sulfide layers on polypropylene film

Abstract

To form non-stoichiometric films of cadmium sulfide (CdS) on polypropylene (PP) strips, the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method was used. The chemical composition and surface morphology of the obtained films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. XRD and EDX confirmed the formation of stratified CdS films on the surface of PP strips. A systematic study was conducted to understand the effect of the composition of the solutions used on the surface morphology and topography of the resulting films. The influence of the surface morphology of CdS films on PP strips on their optical properties was studied using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis).