Simplistic eco-friendly preparation of nanostructured Cu2FeSnS4 powder for solar photocatalytic degradation

Environmentally benign Cu-based multinary chalcogenidessuch as Cu2FeSnS4 (CFTS) are fascinating growing attention owing to their outstanding opto-electronics properties. Here we developed a simple, low cost and industrial scalable ball milling procedure for the eco-friendly synthesis of nanostructured CFTS powder without the need for organic solvents, amines or catalysts. The nanostructured CFTS powder were characterized by various techniques. The phase pure CFTS structure of the product was confirmed by XRD, Raman spectroscopy and EDX analysis. The TEM images confirmed its nanostructured form with particle size around 30 nm. The band gap of the nanostructured CFTS powder was found to be 1.42 eV, which is suitable for multiple applications including photo-catalysis. Further, the synthesized nanocrystalline CFTS powder were used as a solar photo catalyst to explore the degradation of Rhodamine B dye under visible-light. The dye significantly degraded within 120 min under sun light irradiation.