The Synthesize Of Cu-based Chalcogenides Materials That Used As Absorbing Layer For Thin Film Solar Cells

Cu-based chalcogenide semiconductor materials, which inherite the properties frommetal sulfides and metal selendies, have been widely applied. Additionally, the tunability of S:Se ratios provides an effective way to control the properties of semiconductor materials, such as energy band gap, crystal structure, morphology, and electrical conductivity. Thus, Cu-based chalcogenide semiconductor materials have received intense interests. A number of methods have been developed to synthesize Cu-based chalcogenide semiconductor materials with excellent properties. Preparation methods based on vacuum process require expensive equipment and are difficult to achieve large-scale production. Considering the production cost, operation, environmental friendliness, materials, conversion rate and other factors, we finally choosen a solvothermal method to prepare Cu-based chalcogenide semiconductor materials. The solvothermal method is low-cost and easy to operate and achieve large-scale production. The only bottleneck of the solvothermal method is that it takes too long time to prepare Cu-based chalcogenide semiconductor materials. Considering the reaction kinetics, we think that low reactivity and solubility of Se source leads to too long reaction time. This paper presents an optimization scheme for the solvothermal method to synthesize Cu-based chalcogenide semiconductor materials. We conclude as follows:(1) NaBH4 was used to reduce sulfur/selenium with the presence of ethylenediamine to prepare highly reactive sulfur / selenium precursors. The reaction time for synthesising copper-based chalcogenide nanomaterials is shortened to 2 h.(2) With the use of the optimization scheme, the ternary Cu2-x(SySe1-y) nanomaterials, quaternary CuIn(SxSe1-x)2 nanomaterials, Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1-x)4 nanomaterials were prepared to verify the effectiveness and universality of the optimization schemeThe results show that the optimization scheme for the solvothermal method is effective and feasible and can significantly shorten the reaction time. The as-synthesized materials are suitable for the preparation of thin-film solar cell absorber materials.