Photoelectrochemical Properties Of Cu₂ZnSnS₄ Thin Films By Sol-gel Synthesis

Due to the shortage of traditional energy and serious environmental issues,it is important to find renewable energy for sustainable development of human society.Solar energy,known as abundant and clean renewable energy,is the key to solve the world's energy crisis.PV cells and PEC cells are two kinds of methods to utilize solar energy.As the core parts of PV cells and PEC cells,semiconductor films play a very important role with no doubt.A p-type Cu2ZnSnS4(CZTS)film has a proper band gap,a high absorption coefficient,low-cost and non-toxicity,which is rising up as a promising material for a thin film solar cell or a photoelectrochemical cell.In this study,we fabricated CZTS films by sol-gel method,instead of vacuum methods with high cost.According to XRD,Raman,SEM,EDS and XPS measurements,we can understand the growth kinetics of CZTS films and the photoelectrochemical properties of CZTS thin films.Especially,we discussed the relationship between oxidized temperature and the photoelectrochemical properties of CZTS thin films.(1)We successfully fabricated the CZTS thin films by sol-gel method which had no other secondary phases except ZnS.(2)The CZTS films oxidized at 400? and sulfurized at 540? have the best photoelectrochemical performance because they are more stable Kesterite phases with better morphologies and crystalline.(3)The photoelectrochemical performance of CZTS films became better with increasing oxidization temperatures.It is because that the organic impurities in the precursor can be removed with a higher oxidization temperature.However,when the oxidization temperature was too high(>450?),the Mo-coating substrates were easily oxidized and had a harmful effect on the photoelectrochemical performance of CZTS films.