Potential photovoltaic properties of thin film solar cells based on chemically deposited ZnO/PbSe junctions

•Thin film solar cells based on chemically deposited ZnO/PbSe bilayers were studied.•ZnO and PbSe films were grown by simple aqueous phase chemical deposition methods.•Films presented generally good physical properties for applications in solar cells.•Cells showed good photovoltaic performances, achieving an efficiency of 3.0%.•Our solar cells were as efficient as those already reported by similar research.