Deposition of PbS thin films using a continuous flow reactor: Comparison of the modified technique with conventional methods in the coating of PbS thin film on the substrate

Abstract

A reactor was designed to coat the PbS thin film on glass substrate by continuous flow. A methodology is proposed to deposit PbS films based on reducing the roughness via a laminar and continuous flow in the reactor without being affected by the chaotic properties of the turbulent flow. The modified coating method was named flow-through chemical deposition (FTCD). The morphological analysis demonstrated that the surface roughness of PbS films deposited by the FTCD method was lower than the other films. The wetting behaviour of PbS surfaces is consistent with the roughness of the PbS layers coated on the substrate. The results revealed that the properties of the films were influenced from the deposition method, the substrate position and the movement of the chemical solution in the reaction medium. The developed innovative approach has shown promising results for the chemical synthesis of PbS films in the context of surface modification.