Abstract
Nanoparticles of the environmentally benign Cu-based quaternary chalcogenide compound Cu2FeSnS4 (CFTS) were successfully synthesized by a low-cost and simple reaction method and the obtained powder (nanoparticles) has been spin coated as a thin film over the FTO substrate. The prepared samples were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman analysis, UV–Vis spectroscopy, and Field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (FE-SEM–EDX). The results of the analyses confirm that the obtained nanoparticles are good crystalline nature with tetragonal structure. Morphological images show that the synthesized CFTS nanoparticles are closely packed with slight agglomeration. The UV–Vis absorption spectrum reveals that the nanoparticles have wide absorption ranging in the visible region and optical energy bandgap has been calculated using Tauc’s plot. The calculated energy bandgap is 1.32 eV, which indicates their potential as promising materials for photovoltaic application. The electrochemical properties were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The fabricated solar cell was electrochemically characterized by current–voltage (I–V) measurements under simulated AM 1.5 illumination. In the present study, the CFTS-based solar cell with a structure FTO/ZnO/CdS/CFTS has been fabricated, which exhibits the solar power conversion efficiency of 1.32%, and has been reported.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
NA.
References
A.C. Lokhande, K.V. Gurav, E. Jo, C.D. Lokhande, J.H. Kim, J. Alloys Compd. 656, 295–310 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2015.09.232
C. Nefzi, M. Souli, Y. Cuminal, N. Kamoun-Turki, Superlattices Microstruct. 124, 17–29 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spmi.2018.09.033
R. Saraf, A. Mathur, V. Maheshwari, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12(22), 25011–25019 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c04346
Z. Su, K. Sun, Z. Han, H. Cui, F. Liu, Y. Lai, J. Li, X. Hao, Y. Liu, M.A. Green, J. Mater. Chem. A 2(2), 500–509 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TA13533K
W.C. Yang, C.K. Miskin, C.J. Hages, E.C. Hanley, C. Handwerker, E.A. Stach, R. Agrawal, Chem. Mater. 26(11), 3530–3534 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1021/cm501111z
F. Ozel, J. Alloys Compd. 657, 157–162 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2015.10.087
P. Nazari, A. Yazdani, Z. Shadrokh, B.A. Nejand, N. Farahani, R. Seifi, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 111, 110–114 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2017.07.005
R. Deepika, P. Meena, Mater. Res. Express 6(8), 0850b7 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab24e9
K. Mokurala, P. Bhargava, S. Mallick, Mater. Chem. Phys. 147(3), 371–374 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2014.06.049
K. Mokurala, S. Mallick, P. Bhargava, J. Power Sources 305, 134–143 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.11.081
S.G. Nilange, N.M. Patil, A.A. Yadav, Physica B 560, 103–110 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2019.02.008
X. Meng, H. Deng, L. Sun, P. Yang, J. Chu, Mater. Lett. 161, 427–430 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2015.09.013
K. Diwate, K. Mohite, M. Shinde, S. Rondiya, A. Pawbake, A. Date, H. Pathan, S. Jadkar, Energy Procedia 110, 180–187 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.125
J. Zhou, Z. Ye, Y. Wang, Q. Yi, J. Wen, Mater. Lett. 140, 119–122 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2014.11.004
H. Guan, Y. Shi, B. Jiao, X. Wang, F. Yu, Chalcogenide Lett. 11, 9–12 (2014)
P. Prabeesh, I.P. Selvam, S.N. Potty, Thin Solid Films 606, 94–98 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2016.03.037
S. Wang, R. Ma, C. Wang, S. Li, H. Wang, Appl. Surf. Sci. 422, 39–45 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.05.244
B. Ananthoju, J. Mohapatra, D. Bahadur, N.V. Medhekar, M. Aslam, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 189, 125–132 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.09.028
J. Zhou, S. Yu, X. Guo, L. Wu, H. Li, Curr. Appl. Phys. 19(2), 67–71 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cap.2018.10.014
H. Guan, H. Shen, B. Jiao, X. Wang, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 25, 159–162 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2013.10.021
G. Chen, J. Li, S. Chen, Z. Huang, M. Wu, J. Zhao, W. Wang, H. Lin, C. Zhu, Mater. Chem. Phys. 188, 95–99 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2016.12.024
G. El Fidha, N. Bitri, S. Mahjoubi, M. Abaab, I. Ly, Mater. Lett. 215, 62–64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2017.12.063
R. Deepika, P. Meena, Mater. Res. Express 7(3), 035012 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab7c21
R.R. Prabhakar, N. Huu Loc, M.H. Kumar, P.P. Boix, S. Juan, R.A. John, S.K. Batabyal, L.H. Wong, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 6(20), 17661–17667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1021/am503888v
S. Sarkar, P. Howli, U.K. Ghorai, B. Das, M. Samanta, N.S. Das, K.K. Chattopadhyay, CrystEngComm 20(10), 1443–1454 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CE02101A
X. Miao, R. Chen, W. Cheng, Mater. Lett. 193, 183–186 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2017.01.099
M. Cao, C. Li, B. Zhang, J. Huang, L. Wang, Y. Shen, J. Alloys Compd. 622, 695–702 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.10.164
M. Mayakkannan, A. Murugan, A. Shameem, V. Siva, S. Sasikumar, S. Thangarasu, S.A. Bahadur, J. Energy Storage 44, 103257 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2021.103257
W. Wang, H. Shen, H. Yao, J. Li, Mater. Lett. 125, 183–186 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2014.03.166
M.P. Suryawanshi, S.W. Shin, U.V. Ghorpade, K.V. Gurav, C.W. Hong, P.S. Patil, A.V. Moholkar, J.H. Kim, J. Alloys Compd. 671, 509–516 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.02.015
S.A. Vanalakar, S.M. Patil, V.L. Patil, S.A. Vhanalkar, P.S. Patil, J.H. Kim, Mater. Sci. Eng. 229, 135–143 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2017.12.034
N. Akcay, E.P. Zaretskaya, S. Ozcelik, J. Alloys Compd. 772, 782–792 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.09.126
A. Murugan, V. Siva, A. Samad Shameem, S.A. Bahadur, J. Alloys Compds. 856, 158055 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.158055
M. Isacfranklin, R. Yuvakkumar, G. Ravi, B. Saravanakumar, M. Pannipara, A.G. Al-Sehemi, D. Velauthapillai, ACS Omega 6(14), 9471–9481 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c06167
S.P. Madhusudanan, M.S. Kumar, K.Y. Yasoda, D. Santhanagopalan, S.K. Batabyal, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 31(1), 752–761 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-02582-5
J.Y. Park, J.H. Noh, T.N. Mandal, S.H. Im, Y. Jun, S.I. Seok, RSC Adv. 3(47), 24918–24921 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1039/C3RA43331E
A. Ghosh, A. Biswas, R. Thangavel, G. Udayabhanu, RSC Adv. 6(98), 96025–96034 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA15700A
S. Bharathkumar, M. Sakar, J. Archana, M. Navaneethan, S. Balakumar, Chemosphere 284, 131280 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131280
S. Lu, H. Yang, F. Li, Y. Wang, S. Chen, G. Yang, Y. Liu, X. Zhang, Sci. Rep. 8(1), 1–7 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26770-1
S. Chen, A. Xu, J. Tao, H. Tao, Y. Shen, L. Zhu, J. Jiang, T. Wang, L. Pan, ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 3(11), 2652–2659 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00585
C. Dong, W. Meng, J. Qi, M. Wang, Mater. Lett. 189, 104–106 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2016.11.090
S. Chatterjee, A.J. Pal, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 160, 233–240 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2016.10.037
S. Rondiya, N. Wadnerkar, Y. Jadhav, S. Jadkar, S. Haram, M. Kabir, Chem. Mater. 29(7), 3133–3142 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00149
C. Dong, G.Y. Ashebir, J. Qi, J. Chen, Z. Wan, W. Chen, M. Wang, Mater. Lett. 214, 287–289 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2017.12.032
D. Lee, K. Yong, Nanotechnology 25(6), 065401 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/25/6/065401
A. Tumbul, F. Aslan, A. Göktaş, I.H. Mutlu, J. Alloys Compd. 781, 280–288 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.12.012
Funding
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
RD contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, and writing—review & editing. PM contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing, and project administration.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Deepika, R., Meena, P. Colloidal chemical synthesis of quaternary semiconductor Cu2FeSnS4 (CFTS) nanoparticles: absorber materials for thin-film photovoltaic applications. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09429-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09429-6