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A comprehensive review on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin film for solar cell: forecast issues and future anticipation

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Abstract

Past few decades, light absorbing materials based on CuInGaSe2 and CdTe have been used for fabrication of thin film solar cells. But main issues arising from these absorbers are the limited availability and toxicity of some of their constituents, viz. In, Cd, and Te. At present, light absorbing materials based on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a best alternative to develop low cost and environmentally friendly component for next generation thin film solar cells. CZTS and their selenium alloy based devices showed the necessary potential for the development of thin film solar cells (TFSCs). There have been numerous attempts to synthesize TFSCs based on CZTS absorber. Various techniques available to deposit thin film absorber layer rely on vacuum and non-vacuum based methods. In this review, we focused on various deposition methods, their shortcomings and potential improvement for deposition of CZTS thin film. We have also addressed various parameters that affect CZTS thin film and its device performance including condition of annealing, variation of composition and do** of different elements. Finally, we have discussed the challenges and approaches for resolving the issue in the synthesis of CZTS based thin film solar cell.

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(Reprinted from Ref. Ren (2020) Copyright (2016) with permission from Elsevier)

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(Reprinted with permission from Ref. Yang et al. (2016). “Copyright (2016) American Chemical Society”)

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(Reprinted from Ref Sun et al. (2019b) copyright (2019) with permission from Elsevier)

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(Reprinted with permission from Ref. Fairbrother et al. (2012) copyright (2012) American Chemical Society). (Color figure online)

Fig. 13

(Reprinted with permission from Ref. **aoshuang et al. (2020) “copyright (2020) American Chemical Society”)

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge CSIR-HRD Group (File No. 08/526(0001)/2014-EMR-I) for the financial support. This work has also been supported by India-Bulgaria joint research program by Department of Science and Technology, India (INT/BLG/P-09/2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Govt. V.Y.T.PG Autonomous College, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India

    Mitisha Baid, Ayesha Hashmi, Bhawana Jain & Ajaya Kumar Singh

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Md. Abu Bin Hasan Susan

  3. Department of Microelectronics, Technical University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Mariya Aleksandrova

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  1. Mitisha Baid
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Baid, M., Hashmi, A., Jain, B. et al. A comprehensive review on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin film for solar cell: forecast issues and future anticipation. Opt Quant Electron 53, 656 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-021-03272-5

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