Structural Investigation of Photocatalyst Solid Ag1？xCuxInS2 Quaternary Alloys Sprayed Thin Films Optimized within the Lattice Compatibility Theory (LCT) Scope
CuxAg1？xInS2 solid thin films were fabricated through a low-cost process. Particular process-related enhanced properties lead to reaching a minimum of lattice mismatch between absorber and buffer layers within particular solar cell devices. First, copper-less samples X-ray diffraction analysis depicts the presence of AgInS2 ternary compound in chalcopyrite tetragonal phase with privileged (112) peak ( ？) according to JCPDS 75-0118 card. Second, when x content increases, we note a shift of the same preferential orientation (112) and its value reaches 1.63 ？ corresponding to CuInS2 chalcopyrite tetragonal material according to JCPDS 89-6095 file. Finally, the formation and stability of these quaternaries have been discussed in terms of the lattice compatibility in relation with silver-copper duality within indium disulfide lattice structure. Plausible explanations for the extent and dynamics of copper incorporation inside AgInS2 elaborated ternary matrices have been proposed. 1. Introduction AgInS2 and CuInS2, which are both chalcopyrite ternary solids belonging to I-III-VI2 compounds, are attractive materials of photovoltaic cells and optoelectronic devices because of their good stability under solar radiation, their large absorption coefficient, and their band gap energy lying in 1.5？2.1？eV domain. Theoretical calculation regarding solar conversion efficiencies of 27–32% has been made with I-III-VI2 ternaries as absorbers. Even thin film solar cells of 12% efficiency have been successfully reached [1, 2]. However, these ternaries solar cells are typically fabricated by means of high-cost techniques, so that low-cost methods demand is noticeably increasing. Indeed, the spray pyrolysis technique has not been widely used for preparing a large scale of such ternary materials for energy conversion purpose. In the same line, the mixture of both Ag and Cu as precursors of ternary materials in the started spraying solutions could lead to some various alloys having interesting physical characterisations. Ciszek has proposed a method to fabricate the quaternary CuxAg1？xInSe2 [3]. It is noted that CuInS2 material solidifies in chalcopyrite structures [4] whereas AgInS2 can solidify in two forms: chalcopyrite and orthorhombic [5, 6]. Moreover, the latest ternary compound could be obtained as n-type or p-type semiconductor using appropriate experimental chemical conditions [7–14]. In this work, we report for the first time the preparation on glass substrates at 420°C of quaternaries CuxAg1？xInS2 thin films using the spray pyrolysis technique from aqueous solutions.
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