Impact on Structural and Optical Properties of CZTS Thin Films with Solvents and Ge Incorporation

Junho Kim,Tien-Chien Jen,Leonardo Palmisano,Abhay Kumar Singh,Tanka R Rana,M Shkir

doi:10.1155/2021/1508469

Abstract

This report demonstrates nontoxic colloidal nitrate route CZTS (Cu2ZnSnS4) synthesis at room temperature, along with their band grading due to incorporation of Ge as cost of Sn (3%). The parent CZTS, CZGTS (Cu2ZnGeSnS4), and their polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solvent containing solutions doctor blade-coated thin film structural and optical properties are discussed. Their sulfurized thin films thickness have been achieved ±2 μ. It has noticed that addition of Ge in CZTS alloy affects the grain sizes, crystallographic structure, Raman spectral peak shift toward the higher wave number side. The addition of PVA and DMSO is also substantially contributed in their physical property modification by demonstrating the gradual improvement in grain sizes and compactness. Moreover, the gradual changes have also appeared in their X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and Raman spectroscopic results. The optical energy band gaps of the CZTS, CZGTS, and their PVA, DMSO mixed alloyed thin films are obtained in between 1.27 eV to 1.57 eV and 1.58 eV to 1.83 eV.

Highlights

With the increasing consumption of conventional energy with the gradual serious environmental problems worldwide, the researchers have paid much attention toward research and application of solar cells [1, 2], to fulfill the nextgeneration worldwide power consumption requirements upto terawatt (TW) level
Synthesized CZTS and CZGTS (Figure 1(i)) and their dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) mixed solutions doctor blade-coated (Figure 1(ii)) thin films on SLG substrate are exhibited in Figure 1 (iii (a–f))
The grain sizes and compactness of the surface morphologies of the CZTS and PAV and DMSO have been noticed in rather improved sequence

Summary

Introduction

With the increasing consumption of conventional energy with the gradual serious environmental problems worldwide, the researchers have paid much attention toward research and application of solar cells [1, 2], to fulfill the nextgeneration worldwide power consumption requirements upto terawatt (TW) level. This can be achieved only considering a few key issues, like photovoltaic materials should be cost-effective, earth abundant, offer a long functional lifetime, and have high power conversion efficiency with the direct energy gap [1,2,3]. Several investigators have been demonstrated the fabrication of CZTS solar cells using a variety of (i)

Methods

Results

Conclusion