Issue 15, 2012

Phase selective synthesis of metastable orthorhombic Cu2ZnSnS4

Abstract

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is acknowledged as an alternative to traditional p-type semiconductors. Traditionally obtained CZTS, however, is mostly kesterite or stannite phase, which features a tetragonal crystal cell. Herein, novel orthorhombic CZTS has been synthesized via an ethylenediamine-assisted hydrothermal method. Ethylenediamine plays an important part in the construction of the orthorhombic phase. Kesterite CZTS was also obtained in an ultrapure water system without ethylenediamine. The structure was confirmed by XRD, XPS and HRTEM. The band gap of the orthorhombic CZTS is about 1.45 eV, which approaches the optimum value for solar photoelectric conversion. What's more, we found that this orthorhombic CZTS is metastable. After annealing at 500 °C, a phase transformation from the orthorhombic structure to the tetragonal kesterite structure was achieved. The photoelectric response was also characterised, which demonstrated its potential for application in photovoltaic devices.

Graphical abstract: Phase selective synthesis of metastable orthorhombic Cu2ZnSnS4

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Dec 2011
Accepted
16 Feb 2012
First published
09 Mar 2012

J. Mater. Chem., 2012,22, 7502-7506

Phase selective synthesis of metastable orthorhombic Cu2ZnSnS4

H. Jiang, P. Dai, Z. Feng, W. Fan and J. Zhan, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 7502 DOI: 10.1039/C2JM16870G

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