A versatile strategy for fabricating various Cu2ZnSnS4 precursor solutions

Abstract

Herein, we successfully prepared dithiocarbamate-based Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) precursor solutions using various amino groups such as methylamine, ethylamine, propylamine, butylamine, amylamine, hexylamine, octylamine, and ethanolamine. These solutions exhibited a distinguishing wetting behavior, viscosity, and stability and could be used to fabricate CZTS thin films by a simple spin-coating and annealing process. We compared the thermogravimetric analysis of the precursor solutions and the XRD patterns of the as-prepared CZTS films and clear differences between the samples were observed. Furthermore, we fabricated high-quality CZTS films using the ethanoldithiocarbamate-based CZTS precursor solution, and the Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ solar cell with the best power conversion efficiency (7.66%) under 1.5 AM illumination was achieved.