Prospects toward UV-blue filtered solar drying of agricultural farm produce using chemically deposited copper chalcogenide thin films on cellular polycarbonate

Abstract We analyze the suitability of copper chalcogenide (sulfide/selenide) thin films applied by chemical deposition on cellular polycarbonate sheet (8 mm cell-size, 0.6 mm wall thickness) 130 cm × 122 cm in area in UV-blue filtered solar dehydration of farm produce. The optical bandgap of 1.5 eV of these semiconductors causes the optical transmittance of the coated sheets to drop toward zero for solar radiation of wavelengths shorter than 500 nm. A high p-type electrical conductivity, 2 × 103 Ω−1 cm−1 of the coatings brings-in metal-like optical reflectance (>0.5) in the near infrared and a very low optical transmittance (