Large-Grained Cu2BaSnS4 Films for Photocathodes

Juan Xie; Qinghua Yi; Fayun Zhang; Robabeh Bagheri; Fengang Zheng; Guifu Zou

doi:10.1021/acsami.9b07410

Large-Grained Cu₂BaSnS₄ Films for Photocathodes

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Sep 11;11(36):33102-33108. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b07410. Epub 2019 Aug 29.

Authors

Juan Xie¹, Qinghua Yi², Fayun Zhang³, Robabeh Bagheri¹, Fengang Zheng¹, Guifu Zou¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Science and Technology, College of Energy, Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovations and Key Laboratory of Advanced Carbon Materials and Wearable Energy Technologies of Jiangsu Province , Soochow University , Suzhou 215006 , China.
² College of Physics and Engineering , Changshu Institute of Technology and Jiangsu Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials , Changshu 215500 , China.
³ School of New Energy Science and Engineering , Xinyu University , Xinyu 338004 , China.

PMID: 31385686
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b07410

Abstract

p-Type compounds Cu₂BaSnS₄ (CBTS) are extremely attractive materials for photocathode applications because of their suitable conduction and valence bands, earth-abundant sources, and environmental friendly nature. Herein, an inexpensive and reproducible aqueous solution approach has been developed to synthesize CBTS films with single-crystalline grains as large as micron scale. Because of the large crystalline grains, the as-grown CBTS films show excellent carrier mobility (1.29 cm²/V·s). Greater than 4 mA·cm^-2 photocurrent density has been obtained in a neutral solution for bare Mo/CBTS film photocathodes under 100 mW·cm^-2 illumination at 0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode.

Keywords: CuBaSnS; aqueous solution; micron sized grains; photocathodes; polycrystalline films.