Surfactant free, easy, low-cost, and large scale hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of CZTS ink for photovoltaic utility

Non-toxic, low cost, and environment-friendly solar absorber materials is a great subject of interest for research community for photovoltaic applications. The preparation of these solar cell materials by adopting a greener synthesis route still remains a challenge. Herein we present a surfactant free, cheaper, non-toxic and highly scalable one pot hydrothermal synthesis of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) ink for its efficacy in photovoltaic application. The properties of CZTS ink were analyzed by utilizing Photoluminescence (PL), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization techniques. The highly pure kesterite structure of CZTS was confirmed by the diffraction peaks observed using XRD. The calculated lattice parameters and from the XRD data are 0.54 nm and 1.09 nm respectively having a full width half maxima (FWHM) of 0.81 corresponding to the highly intense diffraction peak (112). The recorded PL spectra having intense PL main peak at 823 nm confirms the highly luminescent behavior of our synthesized CZTS ink. The formation of a very good surface morphology has been confirmed by SEM image. The observed FTIR peaks at 1456 cm ^-1 and 712 cm ^-1 govern the existence of functional groups C-H and C-C bending vibration respectively. This interesting study shows the ability to synthesize surfactant free, low cost and high performance CZTS ink for its utility in photovoltaic domain.