Chemical bath deposition of petal-shaped In2S3 microspheres and their photoelectrochemical properties

• In 2 S 3 thin films with petal-shaped microspheres were synthesized by chemical bath deposition. • Physical properties of In 2 S 3 thin films with petal-shaped microspheres were investigated. • PEC properties of In 2 S 3 thin films with petal-shaped microspheres were studied. In this paper, In 2 S 3 thin films were prepared by chemical bath deposition. The photoelectric properties of In 2 S 3 thin films were optimized by controlling the amount of acetic acid. The structural characteristics of In 2 S 3 were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The morphologies of In 2 S 3 thin films were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The bandgaps of In 2 S 3 thin films were measured by UV–Vis-NIR spectra. PEC measurements indicated that when 0.4 M CH 3 CO 2 H was added, the PEC property of In 2 S 3 was the best, and highest photocurrent density was 41.93 μA/cm 2 .