The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 12 No 3 (2008): 600 – 608

 

 

 

POTENTIOSTATIC DEPOSITION OF COPPER INDIUM DISULFIDE THIN FILMS: EFFECT OF CATHODIC POTENTIALS ON THE OPTICAL AND PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL PROPERTIES

 

Teo Sook Liang, Zulkarnain Zainal*, Tan Wee Tee and Imad Hamadneh

 

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia,

43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

 

*Corresponding author: zulkar@fsas.upm.edu.my

 

Abstract

CuInS₂    thin films were one-step potentiostatically deposited onto indium tin oxide (ITO) coated  glass from aqueous solution containing CuCl₂,  InCl₃    and Na₂S₂O₃.  The effect of cathodic  potentials  on the structural, photoelectrochemical  and  optical  properties  of  the  deposited  film  were  studied.  X-ray  diffraction  (XRD) patterns showed that the deposited CuInS₂   material was polycrystalline with tetragonal structure. Photoactivity of the samples was studied using linear sweep  voltammetry. A typical increase from 1.25 to 2.30 eV in the optical band gap energy was observed on increasing the cathodic potential from -0.30 to -0.70 V (Ag/AgCl).

 

Keywords: CuInS₂; Potentiostatic deposition; Cathodic potential; Photoactivity; Band gap

 

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