Fabricating antimony sulfide Sb2S3 microbars using solvothermal synthesis: effect of the solvents used on the optical, structural, and morphological properties

Abstract

Antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) is a promising candidate for cell absorbers due to its appropriate band gap, abundant constituents, non-toxicity, simple composition, and long-term stability. In this study, highly oriented Sb2S3 microbars were prepared utilizing an easy, low-cost solvothermal approach. The effects of the solvents used on the morphological and the crystal structure and optical properties of the Sb2S3 films were inspected using X-ray powder direction (XRD), UV/Vis spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The XRD analysis demonstrated that the Sb2S3 crystals had an orthorhombic phase. The Sb2S3 nanorods/bars mostly grew along the (010) direction. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) peaks had an atomic ratio of 2:3 for Sb:S. UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy showed that the optical energy gap of the Sb2S3 microbars was 1.5 with ethylene glycol as the solvent. Aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) micrographs demonstrated that the Sb2S3 was dendrite-like consisting of microbars with a standard a length of 8–15 µm and width of 250–400 nm.