Development of CZIS Material Semiconductor, Non-toxic for Potential Photovoltaic Applications

Title:Development of CZIS Material Semiconductor, Non-toxic for Potential Photovoltaic Applications

Volume: 11 Issue: 2

Author(s): R. Olvera-Rivas, A. Méndez-Reséndiz, S.A. Pérez-GarcÍa, F. de Moure-Flores, S.A. Mayén-Hernández and J. Santos-Cruz*

Affiliation:

• Facultad de Quimica, Materiales-Energia, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, C.P. 76101 Qro,Mexico

Keywords: PVD, Thermal treatment and sulfurization, non-toxic material, CZIS, UV-V, photovoltaic cells.

Abstract: Background: Cu2ZnFeS3 (CZIS) thin films were grown as a non-toxic material for use in photovoltaic cells as an n-type semiconductor. This material could work in synergy with p-type materials already existing in the market such as CdTe and Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS). Thin films of CZIS were grown as a quaternary Cu2ZnFeS3 material by the co-evaporation technique under high vacuum from binary sulfides such as iron sulfide (FeS2), copper sulfide (CuS) and zinc sulfide (ZnS), each one individually optimized and characterized.

Methods: In this work, the results were performed using different variants such as thermal annealing step in two different atmospheres such as under vacuum, and vacuum-sulfur and also at different temperature (500-600ºC) in order to obtain quaternary materials. The structural, optical, morphological, compositional, and electrical properties of the samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Hall effect measurements. XPS results indicate that the samples are slightly rich in Zn and poor in Cu.

Conclusion: The evidence of surface oxidation has also been noted. Nevertheless, the depth profile did not show a significant change in the signal or in the composition in the composition. From the UV-Vis analyzes, we obtained optical band gap values with 2.22 < Eg < 2.76 eV. The carrier concentrations were found to be in the range of 3.3 x1020 to 4.6x1021 cm-3, the mobility value was around 4.45-0.22 cm2 V-1s-1, and the resistivity values were determined in the range of 1.68x10-3 to 1.89x10-2 Ω-cm.

Cite this article as:

Olvera-Rivas R., Méndez-Reséndiz A., Pérez-GarcÍa S.A. , de Moure-Flores F. , Mayén-Hernández S.A. and Santos-Cruz J.*, Development of CZIS Material Semiconductor, Non-toxic for Potential Photovoltaic Applications, Recent Innovations in Chemical Engineering 2018; 11 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2405520411666180501111414