Electrodeposition of Iron Selenide: A Review

In recent years, metal selenide materials have attracted attention due to their wide application prospects. In this family of materials, FeSe is particularly studied since it is both a semiconductor used in solar cells and a superconductor with a critical transition temperature, Tc, of 8 K. For any envisaged application, the possibility of preparing large-area FeSe thin films at low cost is extremely appealing, and one possible technique suitable for this purpose is electrodeposition. Several groups have reported successful electrodeposition of FeSe, but the investigated systems are different in many aspects, and the results are difficult to compare. The aim of this review is to collect the available information on FeSe electrodeposition and the thermodynamic laws controlling this process; to catalog the literature pointing out the differences in the experimental procedure and how they influence the results; and to draw general conclusions, if any, on this topic.

Automated summary

Metal selenide materials, particularly FeSe, have gained attention due to their wide applications as a semiconductor in solar cells and a superconductor with a critical transition temperature of 8 K. The possibility of producing large-area FeSe thin films at a low cost using electrodeposition has been explored, but the reported results are difficult to compare due to variations in the experimental procedures. This review aims to gather information on FeSe electrodeposition, analyze the thermodynamic laws governing the process, highlight differences in experimental procedures, and draw general conclusions on the topic if possible.