A facile synthesis of hierarchical Cu2NiSnS4 nanostructures with low thermal conductivity for thermoelectric applications

Evaluating the performance of efficient Cu2NiSnS4 solar cell—A two stage theoretical attempt and comparison to experiments

“…Several privileges including suitable energy gap ranged from 1.45 to 1.74 eV, significant absorption coefficient (>10 4 cm −1 ), inexpensive and enormous earth-abundant elements, low toxicity, and reasonably extensive steadiness make the p-type CNTS semiconductor material effective as a promising absorber in the TFSC [ [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] ]. Several techniques such as spray sandwich method [ 31 ], electrodeposition post-sulfurization [ 26 , 32 ], direct solution coating post-sulfurization [ 28 ], and facile synthesis method [ 33 ] have been used to fabricate the CNTS films for the solar cell applications. Very recently, a spin-coating method has been employed to prepare the CNTS thin-film without sulfurization [ 34 ].…”

Exceptional Thermoelectric Performance of Cu2(Zn,Fe,Cd)SnS4 Thin Films

“…The PF of the CZFCTS-1 thin films was substantially improved by annealing (Figure c). Compared to the CZTS films (Figure ), the CZFCTS-1 thin films annealed for 24 h show significant enhancement in maximum PF, by a factor of ∼22, with a PF of ∼2.4 μW cm –1 K –2 at 575 K. Figure e provides a comparison of the maximum PF values obtained in this work to that of published data for analogous polycrystalline quaternary sulfide (Cu 2 BSnS 4 (CBTS), where B = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) bulk materials and thin films. ,,,,,,− Our maximum PF values are significantly higher than all previous reports for single-phase CZTS-based thin films and most polycrystalline bulk materials. This outstanding result demonstrates that cosubstitution of high levels of Cd and Fe into CZTS is an effective approach to increasing the power factor of thin films, and, furthermore, that postdeposition annealing can both enhance film quality and significantly improve charge transport.…”

“…(d) Dependence of S , σ, and PF at 575 K on postdeposition annealing time. (e) Comparison of the maximum PF value obtained in this work and published data for single-phase polycrystalline quaternary sulfide (Cu 2 BSnS 4 (CBTS); B = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) bulk and thin film materials. ,,,,,,− The uncertainty bars show uncertainties of 5, 3, and 10% in the S , σ, and PF values, respectively.…”

Analysis of the Optical Properties and Electronic Structure of Semiconductors of the Cu2NiXS4 (X = Si, GE, Sn) Family as New Promising Materials for Optoelectronic Devices

“…From the data shown in Figure 5, it is clear that all these materials actively absorb light even at low photon energies, namely Cu2NiSnS4 is sensitive even to rays with an energy of 0.7 eV. Cu2NiSiS4 also begins to be activated in the energy range above 1.3 eV, having the highest photoconductivity when absorbing short-wavelength radiation [64][65][66][67][68][69].…”