Effect of Triton X-100 surfactant on thiol-amine cosolvents assisted facile synthesized CdS thin films on glass substrate by spin coating method

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In this article, the effect of Triton X-100 surfactant on the spin coated and vacuum annealed CdS thin films on glass substrates using thiol-amine cosolvents have been explored in details. The SEM study reveals that the surfactant assisted CdS films are uniform, homogeneous and smooth having less cracks, voids, pinholes compared to CdS films synthesized without surfactant. The X-ray diffraction spectra indicate the hexagonal structure of the surfactant-added films with (002) and (100) planes having relatively high intensity whereas a weak hexagonal (002) peak appears for the films deposited without surfactant. Two prominent Raman peaks of CdS thin films are observed at the wavenumber 207 and 212 cm−1 due to the multi-phonon vibration of hexagonal CdS. A relatively strong and broad FTIR peaks at 1647 and 670 cm−1 were observed due to the Cd-S bending and stretching vibration in the surfactant mediated films. Surfactant induced CdS films are nearly stoichiometric as manifested by the energy dispersive X-ray report. Finally, higher optical transmission and band gap have been achieved for the CdS thin films deposited with Triton X-100 surfactant. This study reveals that surfactant mediated CdS thin films with thiol-amine cosolvents can be exploited effectively in higher efficiency thin film solar cell technologies with low cost.