Absorption in the UV-Vis Region from Chemically Exfoliated MoS2 Nanoparticles for Solar Applications

In this work the effect of coating fused silica, and on Ge by molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles was studied. The nanoparticles were chemically exfoliated from a powder. The MoS2 NPs were drop casted and spin coated on the substrates through three equal coating steps of 100 µL, reaching to a total of 300 µL. The samples were characterized using SEM, optical microscopy, XRD and UV–VIS spectrophotometer. The MoS2 NPs were observable under UV illumination by the optical microscope due to the red photoluminescence. The reflectance measurements showed a significant decrease at the UV-Vis (250 to 850 nm) range, and an increase in the NIR (850 to 1500 nm) range for the low temperature PECVD Ge films samples. Moreover, the reduced transmission on the fused silica samples verified that the MoS2 nanoparticles can greatly enhance absorbance, rendering them an appropriate candidate for solar applications.