Morphology and phase controlled synthesis of PVP-assisted copper antimony sulfide microstructures using solvothermal method and their properties

Abstract

Shape and phase controlled synthesis of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) assisted Copper Antimony Sulfide (CAS) nano/- microstructures were successfully synthesized by solvothermal method in single step. X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that the orthorhombic phase of CuSbS2for different molar ratio of precursor. The Raman spectra of CAS nano/- microstructures clearly exhibit a single phase of CuSbS2. The morphology of the prepared CAS nano/- microstructures were characterized using Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), which showed of monodispersed CuSbS2 microstructures. The Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) confirmed the presence of copper, antimony, sulfide and their atomic ratio is around 1:1:2. Using different molar ratio of precursor in solution process, phase-pure, highly crystalline CuSbS2 microstrutures with around 40 nm crystallite size was successfully obtained. The optical absorption spectra reveal that the CuSbS2 has optical bandgap varying from 1.61 eV to 1.74 eV. I–V characteristics for CuSbS2 semiconducting thin films show linear characteristics. Hall measurement studies reveal that film prepared from the sample consisting microspheres with flakes like morphology acquires low resistivity, high mobility and high carrier concentration.