IT01. CZTS nanocrystals and thin films: A low-cost and environmentally benign approach for solar energy harvesting

Summary form only given. Seeking alternatives not containing In and Ga, the related thin film solar cells (TFSC´s) material is Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), which has drawn much attention during past few years because of their easy processing ability, high efficiency at low cost, and environmental eco-friendliness. Moreover, CZTS is composed of earth-abundant elements; it has optical absorption coefficient (105 cm-1) and direct band gap energy (1.0-1.5 eV). Recently, preparation of CZTS NCs have attracted extensive attention due to an ease of simple and low-cost solution based processes, low-processing temperature, better homogeneity, Roll-to-roll manufacturing and flexibility in substrate choice. In addition, solution-processed semiconductor NC-based solar cells represent an alternative to organic solar cells because of their superior stability over organic materials. Many groups have reported the synthesis of CZTS NCs using variety of methods such as precipitation, solvothermal, hydrothermal and hot-injection. However, the use of different toxic and hazardous organic solvents in huge amount for CZTS NCs preparation is not at all acceptable in the context of green synthesis. Therefore, it is great need to develop a substantial route towards more benign synthetic recipes for the preparation of CZTS NCs. In the context of today´s greener synthetic strategies need, our group has focused on the preparation of CZTS NCs using low-cost and environmentally benign solvents by various methods such as microwave, hydrothermal and hot-injection. With this surge of developing robust and eco-friendly strategies, we can expect major breakthroughs in developing economically viable TFSCs technology for solar energy harvesting to meet a global clean energy demand.