%0 Journal Article
%T Facile and Robust Solvothermal Synthesis of Nanocrystalline CuInS2 Thin Films
%A Anna Frank
%A Benjamin Breitbach
%A Christina Scheu
%A Jan Grunwald
%J Archive of "Nanomaterials".
%D 2018
%R 10.3390/nano8060405
%X This work demonstrates that the solvothermal synthesis of nanocrystalline CuInS2 thin films using the amino acid l-cysteine as sulfur source is facile and robust against variation of reaction time and temperature. Synthesis was carried out in a reaction time range of 3¨C48 h (at 150 ¡ãC) and a reaction temperature range of 100¨C190 ¡ãC (for 18 h). It was found that at least a time of 6 h and a temperature of 140 ¡ãC is needed to produce pure nanocrystalline CuInS2 thin films as proven by X-ray and electron diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Using UV-vis spectroscopy, a good absorption behavior as well as direct band gaps between 1.46 and 1.55 eV have been determined for all grown films. Only for a reaction time of 3 h and temperatures below 140 ¡ãC CuInS2 is not formed. This is attributed to the formation of metal ion complexes with l-cysteine and the overall slow assembly of CuInS2. This study reveals that the reaction parameters can be chosen relatively free; the reaction is completely nontoxic and precursors and solvents are rather cheap, which makes this synthesis route interesting for industrial up scaling
%K solvothermal synthesis
%K CuInS2
%K TEM
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6027332/