Investigation of Approaches to Control the Compositions of Zn(Se,OH) Buffers Prepared by Chemical Bath Deposition Process for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) Solar Cells

Abstract

We deposited zinc-based films with various ammonia (ammonium hydroxide; NH4OH) and selenourea concentrations, at the bath temperature of 80 °C, on soda-lime glass substrates using the chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. We analyzed the results using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which showed binding energies of zinc, selenium, and oxygen. The as-deposited films, containing zinc selenide, zinc oxide, and zinc hydroxide, were also verified. The films prepared in this investigation can be referred to a zinc compound, characterized as Zn(Se,OH). A conformal coverage of the Zn(Se,OH) films, with the smooth surface morphologies, was obtained by optimizing the ammonia or selenourea concentrations in the deposition solutions. The Zn(Se,OH) films had a preferred (111) orientation, corresponding to a cubic crystal structure. The bandgap energies of the as-deposited Zn(Se,OH) films were determined from the optical absorption data, suggesting a dependence of the bandgap energies on the atomic percentages of ZnSe, Zn(OH)2 and ZnO in the films. The same variation tendency of the compositions and the bandgap energies for the films, deposited with an increment in the ammonia or selenourea concentrations was achieved, attributing to the facilitation of ZnSe formation. These results show that the compositions, and therefore the bandgap energies, can be controlled by the ammonia concentrations, or selenourea concentrations.

Real-time visualization of Zn metal plating/stripping in aqueous batteries with high areal capacities

“…S8.) [55,56]. In the electrodes immersed in 1 m Zn (OTf) 2 and 5 m AWIS, additional peaks were detected in the F 1s and N 1s spectra, corresponding to the electrolyte salts [16,57].…”

In Situ Study of the Activation Process of MOF-74 Using Three-Dimensional Electron Diffraction

“…The observed differences from Zn-MOF-74 can be explained by considering the Zn–O and Cu–O bonds. The Cu–O bond, characterized by both a longer axial bond length (2.15–2.32 Å) and a lower binding energy compared to the Zn–O bond (1.876 Å) − (∼930 eV vs ∼1020 eV for Cu–O and Zn–O, respectively , ), contributes to the different behaviors.…”

Electroless Deposits of ZnO and Hybrid ZnO/Ag Nanoparticles on Mg-Ca0.3 Alloy Surface: Multiscale Characterization

“…In order to correlate the EDS elemental quantification analysis (Figure 2) with the composition of electroless deposits formed on the Mg-Ca0.3 surface, XPS analysis was carried out; Figure 3 presents the high-resolution spectra of Mg, Zn, O and C elements. The O1s spectrum shows a maximum peak at ≈531.9 eV associated with the presence of hydroxide [66][67][68][69][70], as also two deconvoluted peaks at ≈531.2 eV ascribed to metal oxide [71][72][73][74][75][76][77] and at ≈532.3 eV belonged to inorganic carbonate [66,67,73,[78][79][80]. The high-resolution spectrum of Mg2p presented a maximum peak at ≈50.2 eV associated with the presence of MgO [67,69,71,72,81]; likewise, two deconvoluted peaks were detected at ≈49.8 eV ascribed to Mg(OH) 2 [66][67][68][69], and at ≈51.2 eV suggesting the presence of MgCO 3 [66,67,73].…”