A green and facile hydrothermal approach for the synthesis of high-quality semi-conducting Sb2S3 thin films.

High-quality semi-conducting antimony sulfide (Sb 2 S 3 ) thin films were directly deposited on the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates by a green and facile one-step approach based on a hydrothermal reaction and post-annealing process without any assistance of complexing agents. The obtained Sb 2 S 3 films possessed a relatively ideal S/Sb atomic ratio and a compact and continuous surface as the grain size of Sb 2 S 3 was increased by high temperature annealing. The Sb 2 S 3 film annealed at 450 °C exhibited the improved optical and electrical performances, with a narrow band gap of 1.63 eV, an electrical resistivity of 1.3 × 10 4 Ω cm, a carrier concentration of 7.3 × 10 13 cm −3 and a carrier mobility of 6.4 cm 2 V −1 s −1 . This environmentally friendly synthetic route is promising for the preparation of high-quality Sb 2 S 3 films to be used as absorber layer materials for high-performance solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]