Short Article - Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistry & Chemical Science (2018) Volume 2, Issue 2

Mechanochemically Assisted Synthesis of Kesterite Cu2 Znsns4 Nano Powders for Photovoltaic Applications Via Copper Alloys Formation

Mechanochemically synthesis dwells on during reactions induced in substrate mixtures under high energy ball milling conditions such as up to 900-1000 rpm speeds of planetary ball mills and use of extremely hard grinding balls. From starting suitable mixtures of all the four elements, we have successfully explored such a process for the preparation of nano powders of semiconducting kesterite Cu2 ZnSnS4 ? prospective material for photovoltaics. Here it is described is a modification of the process in which, first, the Cu, Zn, and Sn metal powders are wet milled at 900 rpm forming the well mixed copper binary nanocrystalline alloys, Cu/Sn (1:1) and Cu/Zn (5:8). Stoichiometric amount of natural sulfur S is then included, and response processing is proceeded for a predetermined timeframe to bring about one clean quaternary item that is likely called a pre-kesterite. It is a cubic polytype with normal crystallite sizes of 8-12 nm (XRD), attractive (EPR), shows no 65Cu and 119Sn MAS NMR spectra, and needs semiconducting properties (UV-vis), albeit artificially and basically is like the semiconducting tetragonal kesterite.

Author(s): Jerzy F Janik

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