Influence of Copper Concentration on Structural Properties of Cusbs2 Material for Solar Cell Application.

Copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS₂-CSC) is a ternary layered semiconductor material that has been considered an absorber material in thin film solar cells due to its optimal band gap (~1.5 eV) with a high absorption coefficient of over (>10⁴ cm⁻¹). It has attractive optical and electrical properties, as well as earth-abundant, low-cost, and low-toxic constituent elements. The CSC material was prepared by simple ball milling with Sb₂S₃ and two copper sources: copper acetate and copper chloride. The ground material was placed in the furnace for thermolysis. The temperature was set to 200°C for 1 h for all the samples. In addition, the influence of copper concentration was also analyzed. The prepared material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, selected area diffraction (SAED), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns confirmed the presence of the CuSbS₂ phase in most samples. Some samples show the temperature-dependent phases of CuSbS_2, such as Sb₂S₃ and Cu₁₂Sb₄S₁₃. Raman and selected area diffraction (SAED) results were also in accordance with the XRD results. TEM shows the nanosized structure formation of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]