Preparation and characterization of CuInSe2 particles via the hydrothermal route for thin-film solar cells

Synthesis of CIS (CuInSe2) Based Materials for Solar Applications

“…Figure 3, XRD data shows that the synthesized powders were mainly comprised of CIS tetragonal chalcopyrite materials (JCPDS card number 40-1487). In a study by Wu et al [10], it was indicated that cubic particles were observed at 160 ∘ C, cubic shape particles decreased at 170 ∘ C, and CIS tetragonal shape was formed at 200 ∘ C. In this study, based on XRD data from Figure 3 at 10 h, pure CIS phase is observed with 0.5-1 micron spherical particles, worm-like, irregular shaped nanoparticles as shown in Figure 4(a). At 20 hours' time reaction, 200-400 nm range, worm-like, irregular shaped nanoparticles are observed (Figure 4(b)).…”

“…The XRD patterns of synthesized CIS nanopowders for three different hours are shown in Figure 1. Resolved peaks became sharp and cleaner as the process time increased from 10 h to 40 h. Figure 1 represents X-ray diffraction patterns of CuInSe 2 nanopowders synthesized at 3 different times (10,20, and 40 hours) at constant temperature (240 ∘ C) conditions. XRD data shows that synthesized powders are comprised of tetragonal CIS materials (JCPDS card number 040-1487).…”

“…It is known that processes based on vacuum technology have some disadvantages such as high energy consumption, high processing temperature, necessity of ultrapure materials, and limitation in total area of films [6]. Other types of methods of synthesis involve methods such as electrodeposition [7], chemical deposition [8,9], hydrothermal process [10], and solvothermal process [11,12]. It appears from earlier work that the solvothermal method is the simplest low-cost process for manufacturing and suitable for PV industry.…”

“…The solvothermal process conditions for synthesizing CIS nanopowders influence its structure and surface properties [13]. Processes with multiple steps were experimented using different types of solvents such as ethylenediamine [6,[14][15][16], triethanolamine [10,16], oleylamine [17][18][19][20], oleic acid [13], polyetheramine [21], citric acid, butylcarbitol, hydrazine [22], ammonium bromide [23], and hexadecylamine [24].…”

Synthesis of CuInSe2 thin film by a hydroxides-based deposition process

“…The DTG peak at around 396.5 • C corresponding to the complete decomposition of In(OH) 3 revealed that the preannealing temperature must be lower than 396.5 • C to avoid the formation of In 2 O 3. Simultaneously, the pre-annealing temperature must be higher than the binder degradation temperature of 339.4 • C to remove as much carbon as possible [17]. The carbon content of films pre-annealed at various temperatures was studied by EDS analysis.…”