Photoactive thin film semiconducting iron pyrite prepared by sulfurization of iron oxides

First-principles studies of the electronic properties of native and substitutional anionic defects in bulk iron pyrite

“…1,2 Iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) is a promising photovoltaic material because of its suitable band gap (E g = 0.95 eV), strong light absorption (α > 10 5 cm -1 for hν > 1.4 eV), long minority carrier diffusion length (100-1000 nm), and essentially infinite elemental abundance. 3,4,5,6,7,8 Pyrite photoelectrochemical and solid-state Schottky solar cells have shown large short-circuit current densities (30-42 mA cm -2 ) and quantum efficiencies as high as 90%. 9,10 The main obstacle for the development of pyrite is its low open-circuit photovoltage (V OC ), which is typically only < 200 mV.8 Since 1984, a few dozen studies have explored possible causes of the low V OC , such as bulk nonstoichiometry (mostly S or Fe vacancies), 8,11,12,13 surface states that cause Fermi pinning and thermionic-field emission, and large dark currents, 14,15,16 metallic FeS-like surface layers, 17,18 and small-band gap phase impurities in the pyrite bulk (including marcasite, pyrrhotite, and amorphous iron sulfide phases).…”

Scientific and Technological Assessment of Iron Pyrite for Use in Solar Devices

“…Several vapor-phase and solution-processing techniques to synthesize iron pyrite were reported, which include sulfurization of iron and iron-oxide thin films, [10,34,[41][42][43][44] electrodeposition, [45] chemical vapor deposition, [7,[46][47][48] spray pyrolysis, [49,50] sputtering, [51,52] hydrothermal method, [53] and hot-injection method. [27,29,54,55] Theq uality of the pyrite thin film is mostly governed by the sulfurization process in almosta ll cases whereas organic ligands used in many chemical synthesis methods play an importantr ole in controlling the size of nanosized pyrite particles.…”

Pulsed Nd:YAG deposition of nanostructured FeS1-xcontaining meta-stable phases

“…Iron sulfide thin coats have been obtained by ion beam and reactive sputtering(FeS 2 ) [5], vacuum thermal evaporation (FeS 2 ) [6], chemical spray pyrolysis (FeS 2 ) [7], sulfurization of iron oxides to FeS 2 [8],atmospheric-or low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (AP or LP MOCVD; FeS 2 ) [eg.9], FeS 2 thin films using LPCVD of iron pentacarbonyl [Fe(CO) 5 ] hydrogensulfide, and tert-butyl sulfide as precursors [10] and flash evaporation(FeS 2 ) [11]. Iron sulfide nanoparticles were prepared using high-energy mechanical milling [12].…”