Facile synthesis of stoichiometric AgSbS2 silk-like nanoflowers for solar energy conversion

Abstract

In order to avoid the impurity phase, such as Ag3SbS3 and Sb2S3 among AgSbS2 particles and simplify the complicated steps in synthesizing AgSbS2 via conventional methods, the cubic AgSbS2 silk-like nanoflowers with well-defined crystalline structure were synthesized by the one-step, facile and practical solvothermal chemical process. The results show that the as-prepared stoichiometric AgSbS2 nanoflowers with the diameter of 1µm are comprised of silk-like ultrathin nanoflakes. Moreover, the possible formation mechanism of AgSbS2 silk-like nanoflowers with PSS (poly (sodium-p-styrenesul-fonate)) is studied. Furthermore, the AgSbS2 nanoflowers exhibit a broad absorption and high value of incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) in visible light range, indicating that it is a promising photovoltaic absorption material.