A green and low-cost synthetic approach based on deep eutectic choline-urea solvent toward synthesis of CZTS thin films

In this paper, a new, simple, and sustainable method of the Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) thin-film synthesis is presented. The CZTS films have been electrochemically deposited by a single-step electrodeposition from deep eutectic (choline-urea) electrolyte, without sulfurization step, onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrates. − 1.3 V/SCE has been selected as the optimum deposition potentials to grow the CZTS thin films. As-deposited CZTS films were characterized using a range of characterization techniques to study the structural, morphological, and compositional properties and confirmed the presence of the Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 phases. The direct band gap energy for the CZTS thin films is found to be about 1.48 eV.