Hot-injection synthesis and characterization of quaternary Cu2ZnSnSe4 nanocrystals

Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) is one of promising materials in the use of absorber layers of solar cells It contains earth-abundant elements of zinc and tin, a near-optimal direct band gap of similar to 1.5 eV, as well as a large absorption coefficient similar to 10(4) cm-1 The CZTSe nanocrystals in oleylamine (OLA) was successfully prepared via hot-injection method The characterization of its structure, composition, morphology and absorption spectra were done using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis absorption spectra The results revealed that the monodispersed nanocrystals were single phase polycrystalline within the range of 15-20 nm Optical measurements showed a direct band gap of 1 52 eV, which was optimal for low cost solar cells The capping property of OLA was also demonstrated by examining Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) feature peaks of CZTSe and OLA, respectively (C) 2010 Elsevier BV All rights reserved