Research Article - Der Pharma Chemica ( 2017) Volume 9, Issue 2
Chemical Bath Deposited Copper Tin Sulphide Thin Films in the Presence of Complexing Agent: EDX and SEM Analysis
Ho SM
Abstract
Copper tin sulphide thin films have been prepared using chemical bath deposition technique on soda glass substrate. In this work, the chemical bath contains different solutions such as copper sulfate, tin chloride, triethanolamine and sodium thiosulphate which could serve as a Cu2+, Sn2+, complexing agent and S2- ion, respectively for the deposition of thin films. The scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive analysis X-ray technique have been used to study morphology and composition of films. The results indicate that smaller grains could be obtained using lower concentration of sodium thiosulphate solution as shown in scanning electron microscopy analysis. In conclusion, the morphologies of films indicate a clear dependence on the solution concentration.
Keywords
Ternary compound, Chalcogenide metal, Thin films, Solar cells
Introduction
Nowadays, there are many different types of binary, ternary and quaternary thin films have been deposited onto substrate. The applications of thin films include in optics field, mechanics and magnetics field. Extensive research has been carried out on the properties of thin films as pointed out by many researchers. For example, X-ray diffraction [1-5], atomic force microscope [6-10], transmission electron microscopy [11-15], X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy [16-20] and UV-Visible spectrophotometer [21-26] have been employed to investigate the structure, topography, morphology, surface chemistry and optical behavior of thin films, respectively as reported by many researchers.
Here, the influence of sodium thiosulfate solution on the ternary thin films in the presence of complexing agent was investigated. Then, the compositional of samples and the morphology of films were studied by using EDX and SEM technique.
Materials and Methods
In this experiment, all the solutions were prepared in deionized water (Alpha-Q Millipore) and all the chemicals used (copper sulfate, tin chloride and sodium thiosulfate) for the depositions were analytical grade. Here, the influence of various concentrations (0.07 M and 0.03 M) of sodium thiosulphate solution was studied.
First of all, 15 mL of 0.1 M of triethanolamine was added into the beaker that contained 15 mL (0.06 M) of SnCl2 and 15 mL of (0.06 M) CuSO4, respectively. Then, 15 mL of sodium thiosulphate was placed into the 2 separate beakers. Lastly, these solutions were mixed together for few minutes. Hydrochloric acid was used to adjust the pH of solution to pH 1.1. The soda lime glass was used as the substrate during deposition process. The ultrasonically clean glass substrate was then placed vertically inside the beaker without disturbing it. The deposition process was carried out for 110 min at 60ºC. After completion of film deposition, the glass substrate was removed from the beaker and cleaned with distilled water. Then the deposited films were dried in the desiccator and subjected to further analyses.
The morphological and compositional of obtained films were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (JEOL JSM- 6400) and energy dispersive analysis X-ray technique, respectively.
Conclusion
Here, copper tin sulphide thin films have been successfully deposited onto soda lime glass substrate by using chemical bath deposition method in the presence of triethanolamine. The influence of different concentrations of sodium thiosulphate solution was investigated by using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive analysis x-ray technique. The obtained experiment results show that smaller grain size could be seen for the films prepared by using lower concentration of sodium thiosulphate. In other words, the compositional of films show significant dependence on the concentration of solution.
Acknowledgement
INTI International University is gratefully acknowledged for the financial support of this work.
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