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A chemical spray pyrolysis technique has been implemented for the deposition of Cu2CoSnS4 (CCTS) thin films. Spray deposition of the CCTS films is carried out at an optimized substrate temperature of 350 °C by varying thiourea concentration from 1: 3 to 1: 9, concerning cations in the precursor solution. The stannite tetragonal structure of the films is confirmed using X-ray diffraction study. The scanning electron microscopic analysis displays the compact flake-like morphology of the films deposited with thiourea concentration of 1:7. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis showed the constituent elements like Cu, Co, Sn and S in the deposited films. Photoelectrochemical cell based on CCTS thin films as working electrodes, deposited with thiourea concentration of 1:7 regarding cations and having an energy band gap of 1.53 eV, exhibit a power conversion efficiency of 2.33%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modified spray pyrolysis technique was employed for the deposition of CuCoSnS (CCTS) thin films. X-ray diffraction study showed that the CCTS thin films exhibit stannite structure with preferred orientation along (112) plane. The phase purity of sprayed CCTS films was confirmed from Raman analysis, as the most intense peak is observed at 320 cm corresponding to A1 mode. With increase in substrate temperature the grains over the surface of the CCTS films become more distinct. The EDAX spectrum revealed the presence of different constituent elements such as, Cu, Co, Sn and S for the films deposited at 325 °C. The optical absorption study showed that the energy band gap values of the CCTS films are decreasing from 1.70 to 1.46 eV with respect to increase in substrate temperature from 275 to 325 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyvinyl alcohol is used as a surfactant in the chemical bath deposition of PbS thin films, which causes compact, pinhole free and uniform PbS thin films. Influence of deposition time on the structural, optical, morphological, compositional, electro-chemical and photo-electrochemical (PEC) properties of the PbS thin films are studied. The charge transfer resistance is analysed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The best PEC device fabricated using optimized deposition time (3 h) showed short circuit current density (J) of 1.68 mA. After annealing the optimised P sample at 75 °C for 1.5 h the composition changed from Pb rich to near stoichiometric. For typical PA sample J improves to 2.13 mA and photo conversion efficiency advances from 0.045 to 0.072%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanocrystalline cubic CuO thin films are developed by simple and cost-effective modified successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. This method increases the growth rate and reduces the overall deposition time. The synthesized CuO thin films were characterized for their different physico-chemical properties. The film deposited for 25 cycles exhibits optical band gap energy of 2.16 eV, phase pure cubic CuO structure, foggy like surface morphology and hydrophobic in nature. The photoelectrochemical device fabricated using CuO thin film showed an efficiency of 0.35 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original version of this article unfortunately contained an error in Sect. 3.3 Structural analysis Equation (7). The corrected version is published with this erratum (Eq. 7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]