Comparative studies on hierarchical flower like Cu2XSnS4[X= Zn, Ni, Mn & Co] quaternary semiconductor for electrocatalytic and photocatalytic applications

Abstract

CXTS [X = Zn, Co, Mn &Ni] has gained increasing interest owing to its application in photovoltaic devices, photocatalysis and electrocatalysis due to its favorable electrical and optical properties. In this work, CXTS has been prepared by hydro-thermal technique and explored as an electrocatalyst and photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction and dye-degradation. From the XRD analysis, we observe that the prepared compound shows tetragonal structure. SEM images reveal that CXTS exhibits flower like architecture. The optical bandgap has been determined to be 1.53, 1.44, 1.42 and 1.37eV for CZTS, CCTS, CMTS and CNTS respectively. For, electrocatalytic activity, it is found that CNTS is preferred for hydrogen evolution with lower Tafel slope value of 76mV/dec and higher current density among the other materials in CXTS. As a photocatalyst CZTS resulted in better degradation of MB dye for about 60% under visible light. The effect of the position of energy bands, surface activity in hydrogen evolution reaction and the impact of recombination of charge carriers on the photocatalytic degradation has been discussed.