A green and low-cost synthetic approach based on deep eutectic choline-urea solvent toward synthesis of CZTS thin films

In this paper, a new, simple, and sustainable method of the Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin-film synthesis is presented. The CZTS films have been electrochemically deposited by a single-step electrodeposition from deep eutectic (choline-urea) electrolyte, without sulfurization step, onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrates. -1.3V/SCE has been selected as the optimum deposition potentials to grow the CZTS thin films. As-deposited CZTS films were characterized using a range of characterization techniques to study the structural, morphological, and compositional properties and confirmed the presence of the Cu2ZnSnS4 phases. The direct band gap energy for the CZTS thin films is found to be about 1.48eV.