Fabrication of multilayer 1D TiO2/CdS/ZnS with high photoelectrochemical performance and enhanced stability.

• Simple synthesis 1D ZnS-CdS/TiO 2 rod/shell structure through successive ionic layer adsorption reaction. • Narrow band gap semiconductor CdS enhanced light absorption and utilization of photogenerated electrons of TiO 2. • ZnS passivation layer decrease loss of photogenerated electrons in photoanode film. Nano TiO 2 is a basic photoanode material in the application of new type solar cell for its appropriate bandgap and photoemission. However, traditionally TiO 2 -based photoanode films are limited in weak photoresponse and effortless recombination. Herein, we increase light absorption range through combined the uniform CdS quantum dots (QDs) by successive ionic layer adsorption reaction (SILAR) method and decrease the recombination of photo-generated electrons/holes through ZnS passivation layer overlaying on TiO 2 /CdS. Photocurrent response (i-t), photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) curves of TiO 2 /CdS/ZnS demonstrated the photovoltaic conversion efficiency (η) has been reaching 3.43%, which has 230% and 33% improvement than pure TiO 2 and TiO 2 /CdS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]