Polymer/copper indium sulfide (CIS) nanocomposite solar cells are prepared via a capper free in situ preparation route using copper and indium xanthates as precursors, which decompose and form CIS nanoparticles in the polymer matrix during a mild thermal treatment. The solar cells generate current in a wide range of the solar spectrum and exhibit efficiencies up to 2.8%.

Copper zinc tin sulfide (Cu2ZnSnS4, CZTS) is a very promising alternative to semiconductors based on Ga or In as solar absorber material. CZTS consists of abundant and cheap elements and in addition it displays very beneficial properties like a high optical absorption coefficient and an ideal band gap for photovoltaic applications. In this contribution, we present the preparation of thin films of copper zinc tin sulfide from metal salts (copper(I) iodide, zinc(II) acetate, and tin(II) chloride) and thioacetamide as sulfur source by a solution-based precursor method. The influence of synthesizing temperatures and concentration of thioacetamide in the precursor solution on the obtained CZTS materials was investigated. X-ray diffraction studies show that kesterite CZTS is formed. Depending on the temperature, nanocrystalline films with primary crystallite sizes from 8 nm (180 °C) up to approximately 150 nm (450 °C) were obtained. The early stages of the CZTS formation were monitored by time-resolved simultaneous grazing incident small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS, GIWAXS) analysis directly in thin layers revealing that the thermally induced reaction already starts at approximately 105 °C. The thin films exhibit high optical absorption (>1 × 104 cm−1) and an optical band gap between 1.41 and 1.81 eV depending on the heat treatment. The obtained CZTS materials are of copper-poor and zinc-rich nature, which is ideal for the use in photovoltaic applications.

Mesoporous metal chalcogenides (e.g., ZnS, CuS, and derived mixed sulfide or selenides) show an extremely high potential in technological areas like catalysis, sensors, environmental protection, and photovoltaics. Although chemical bath deposition methods allow obtaining stable and porous metal chalcogenide films under mild and simple conditions, the reproducible preparation of highly ordered mesoporous sulfide thin films has been challenging so far. Herein, we present a simple and efficient synthetic method to prepare ZnS mesoporous thin films using a combination of a nanocasting approach and a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process for the infiltration. A mesoporous silica thin film, prepared by evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA), serves as the hard exotemplate for the formation of the mesostructured zinc sulfide. After selective etching of the silica framework, a stable and porous ZnS thin film is obtained, which replicates the pore structure of the hard template. A thorough combination of characterization techniques is used to assess the exotemplating process as well as the template removal.