Amorphous precursor film becomes crystallized iron pyrite film. Optical and electrical
Amorphous precursor film becomes crystallized iron pyrite film. Optical and electrical characterization show that its band gap is 0.89 eV, and it’s an n sort semiconductor using a carrier concentration of 3.01 1019 cm-3 . The corresponding photovoltaic device shows light response. This function suggests that sulfurization is essential inside the electrochemical preparation for fabricating pure iron pyrite films, and as a result for low-cost and large-scale production of iron pyrite solar cells. Keyword phrases: iron pyrite; electrochemical deposition; thiourea; sulfurization1. Introduction Photovoltaic cells are a important technology in producing green energy and suppressing global warming. The development of photovoltaic technologies requires low-cost, stable, non-toxic, and earth-abundant supplies. Iron pyrite (FeS2 ) can be a photovoltaic material which has attracted researchers in recent years [1,2]. It possesses higher stability and nontoxicity with an indirect optical band gap of 0.95 eV. Most importantly, it shows a higher absorption coefficient of = six 105 cm-1 (for 700 nm), which implies that the absorption capacity of 20-nm-thick iron pyrite film is comparable to that of 300- -thick crystalline silicon ( 1.9 103 cm-1 for 700 nm) [3,4]. Nevertheless, its development and application have already been restricted for decades [5], owing to sulfur vacancies [6], undesired doping [7], surface conduction [8], and so on. So far, the record energy conversion efficiency (PCE) of FeS2 -based solar cells is two.8 [95]. Consequently, comprehensive investigation on FeS2 continues to be required, like material synthesis, defect properties, and device physics. Researchers have attempted various solutions to synthesize iron pyrite films, including hydrothermal, hot injection, spin coating, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, spray pyrolysis, and electrochemical (��)-Indoxacarb MedChemExpress deposition (ECD) [1,three,14,16,17]. Amongst them, ECD would be the simplest and most cost-efficient system, and can create a large-area film without having a vacuum [179]. These merits make it suitable for production on an industrial scale. Sulfurization is confirmed to be not merely critical to synthesize pure semiconductors, for instance CZTS and In2 S3 [202], but additionally be essential for improving the crystallinity ofPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Copyright: 2021 by the authors. Trimetazidine medchemexpress Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is definitely an open access write-up distributed below the terms and situations on the Inventive Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ four.0/).Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 2844. https://doi.org/10.3390/nanohttps://www.mdpi.com/journal/nanomaterialsNanomaterials 2021, 11,two ofspin-coated or sputtered iron pyrite films [7,13]. Nonetheless, sulfurization has not been utilized as a post-treatment inside the synthesis of FeS2 film with thiourea based on ECD [23]. Consequently, we suppose that sulfurization may well additional enhance the film excellent of FeS2 film prepared by ECD. Within the present work, we fabricated FeS2 thin films making use of the ECD strategy, and investigated the effect of sulfurization temperature around the properties of iron pyrite films. The outcomes show sulfurization at 450 C is quite critical for forming crystallized, phasepure, and dense FeS2 thin film. With the ready FeS2 thin films, the FeS2 /P3HT-based solar cell was ready and it shows photovoltaic property. two. Materials and Approaches Thiourea (Adamas-beta from Shanghai, Chin.