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Enhancing the thermoelectric properties of CZTS thin films grown on multi-crystalline Si substrate by controlling the sulfurization time duration

HAFIZ T. ALI1, A. ASHFAQ2, M. SHARAFAT HUSSAIN2, K. MAHMOOD2,* , MOHAMMAD YUSUF3, SALMA IKRAM2, A. ALI2, N. AMIN2, K. JAVAID2, M. YASIR ALI2, J. JACOB4, M. AMAMI5

Affiliation

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
  2. Department of Physics, Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan
  3. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
  4. College of Arts and Science, Abu Dhabi University, UAE
  5. Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In this manuscript, we have reported the high value of the power factor for Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS) thin films. CZTS samples used in this study were grown by a sol-gel method using spin coater on multi-crystalline Si (m-Si) substrate. After growth, effect of sulfurization time duration was tested by annealing the samples in the sulfur environment for different time durations (30-60 minutes) with a step of 10 minutes. The highest values of Seebeck (980 μV/0C), electrical conductivity (830 S/m) and power factor (7.88 × 10-2 Wm-1 K -2 ) were obtained for 60 minutes sulfurized sample. This enhancement in thermoelectric properties was related to the improvement of CZTS crystal structure due to increase by sulfurization time. The improvement in the crystal structure was supported by XRD and Raman spectroscopy measurements. XRD data demonstrated that a major CZTS (112) plane was observed at 2ϴ=28.7° for all samples. Crystalline size of grown samples was found to be increased from 12.92 nm to 14.9 nm with increasing the sulfurization time duration. Raman spectroscopy data also suggested that intensity of CZTS related active modes increased and the number of secondary phases decreased by increasing sulfurization time duration.

Keywords

CZTS thin film, Sol-gel method, Seebeck coefficient, XRD, Raman spectroscopy.

Citation

HAFIZ T. ALI, A. ASHFAQ, M. SHARAFAT HUSSAIN, K. MAHMOOD, MOHAMMAD YUSUF, SALMA IKRAM, A. ALI, N. AMIN, K. JAVAID, M. YASIR ALI, J. JACOB, M. AMAMI, Enhancing the thermoelectric properties of CZTS thin films grown on multi-crystalline Si substrate by controlling the sulfurization time duration, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 16, 3-4, March-April 2022, pp.164-168 (2022).

Submitted at: June 9, 2021

Accepted at: April 7, 2022