4.6 Article

Nanocrystalline copper indium selenide (CuInSe2) particles for solar energy harvesting

Journal

RSC ADVANCES
Volume 3, Issue 25, Pages 9829-9834

Publisher

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c3ra40961a

Keywords

-

Funding

  1. Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore
  2. A*STAR SERC Printed Photovoltaic Program [1021700143]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

High quality copper indium selenide (CuInSe2) nanocrystals were synthesized solvothermally at low temperature (180 degrees C) using selenite salts (SeO32-) as a dual source for metal and chalcogen, and dimethylformamide (DMF) as one of the solvents and the reducing agent. In order to find out the best solvent combinations for this type of reduction reaction, the effects of different co-solvents on the phase and morphology of the final products were studied in detail. Pure phase CuInSe2 with high crystallinity was synthesized in a methanol-DMF (Me-DMF) system. On the other hand, using water-DMF (H2O-DMF) resulted in some impurity and nanocrystals of poor crystallinity. Raman study revealed that CuInSe2 crystals synthesized in Me-DMF and H2O-DMF exhibit different scattering geometries. The difference of the final products obtained from Me-DMF and H2O-DMF systems may be due to the difference in the reducing ability of methanol and water as well as the difference in the interaction force between the two solvents within each system. Different morphologies such as nanoparticles and nanoplates can be obtained by simply varying the precursor concentration in the mixed solvents. The photo-response of the as-synthesized materials in a 3-electrode photo-electrochemical (PEC) cell suggests that these materials have the potential to be used for solar energy harvesting.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available