Properties of Tin Monosulphide Films Grown by Chemical Bath Deposition

Abstract

Tin monosulphide (SnS) films have been successfully grown by a simple and low-cost wet chemical process, chemical bath deposition (CBD), using tin chloride and thioacetamide as precursors and tartaric acid as complexing agent. The layers were grown on glass substrate at different bath temperatures (Tb) that varied in the range 50–70°C. The energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) studies showed that all the grown films were nearly stoichiometric. The X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the films had an intense peak at 31.6° that corresponds to the (111) plane of SnS and exhibited orthorhombic crystal structure. The intensity of (111) plane increases with the increase in bath temperature and became sharp atTb=70°C, where the other crystal planes got suppressed, this indicates better crystallinity of the layers grown at this temperature. No other secondary phases of tin sulphide were observed. The structural parameters such as lattice constants and crystallite size were also calculated. The optical studies revealed that the layers had high optical absorption coefficient (>104 cm−1). The energy band gap was found to be allowed and direct and varied between 1.30 eV and 1.35 eV. The band gap decreased with the rise in bath temperature. The refractive index and the extinction coefficient were also evaluated. The details of these results will be presented and discussed.

Photo-induced charge separation Z-scheme mechanism in ternary bismuth sulfide coupled SnS/Al2O3 nanostructure

“…SnS has been investigated as co-catalyst to modify semiconductors for photocatalysis and hydrogen production. [7][8][9] Bi 2 S 3 is a narrow band gap (1.3-1.7 eV) n-type semiconductor with lamellar structure. Bi 2 S 3 has interesting characteristics such as strong light absorption capacity in the visible region and appropriate valence band (VB) and conduction band (CB) positions which make it an ideal material for hybridization with Al 2 O 3 for better directional charge migration in a heterostructure for water splitting and photocatalysis.…”

“…SnS has been investigated as co-catalyst to modify semiconductors for photocatalysis and hydrogen production. 7–9…”

Open-Circuit Photovoltage Exceeding 950 mV with an 840 mV Average at Sb2S3–Thianthrene+/0Junctions Enabled by Thioperylene Anhydride Back Contacts

“…Various sulfides of tin, lanthanum, cerium, cadmium, copper, and antimony are highly stable, straightforwardly synthesized, and have favorable band gap energies for tandem photovoltaics (PV). 8 − 12 Antimony sulfide, Sb 2 S 3 , in particular possesses an ideal 1.7 eV band gap to pair with silicon bottom absorbers and has been studied extensively. 13 Despite early results of open-circuit photovoltages of 770 mV from bath-deposited Sb 2 S 3 , 11 , 14 − 17 the intervening 25 years have seen little improvement.…”

Thermal annealing of sequentially deposited SnS thin films

“…For this SnS is very promising because of its high absorption coefficient (10 5 ), suitable bandgap for solar cells, and abundance in nature [5]. SnS thin films have been deposited by techniques such as electrodeposition [6], spray pyrolysis [7], sputtering [8], vacuum evaporation [9], and chemical-bath deposition (CBD) [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Despite the relatively low cost and simplicity of CBD, research reported on the formation of SnS thin films by CBD is insufficient and the topic needs further investigation.…”