Effect of active sites in pulsed laser deposited bimetallic NiMoS2 thin films for solar energy conversion

•Pulsed laser deposition of bimetallic NiMoS2 films for solar energy conversion.•Effect of active sites on amorphous and crystalline NiMoS2 films.•Enhanced photovoltaic performance by tuning the crystallinity of films. Bimetallic nickel molybdenum disulfide (NiMoS2) thin films were fabricated on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates using pulsed laser deposition and employed as counter electrode in solar energy conversion devices. Krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser was used as source for fabricating NiMoS2 thin films. The energetic active sites of the NiMoS2 were tuned under in-situ temperature conditions (room temperature and 600 °C). The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the fabricated materials were examined using various characterization techniques. Active modes of Raman vibrations in correspondence with NiMoS2 are observed from Raman spectra and the presence of 2H pristine (MoS2) and hexagonal (Ni) phase are determined from XRD analysis. The surface morphology of fabricated NiMoS2 thin films was dynamically visualized from FESEM analysis. The JV characteristic performance of the pulsed laser deposited NiMoS2 counter electrode analyzed using solar simulator at illumination of 100 mW/cm2. NiMoS2 employed DSSCs exhibits a photo-conversion efficiency of ∼4.80%.