Effect of Reducing Agent on Different Phase Formation in Cu-Sb-S Ternary Chalcogenides

Abstract

The novel properties of Cu-Sb-S nanoscale materials have attracted considerable interest and offer exciting opportunities for the development of energy relevant technologies. In recent years there has been renewed interest in investigating a variety of ternary metal chalcogenides particularly in the field of supercapacitance, energy storage and electrocatalysis. [1,2] Recently with these developments, Cu–Sb–S ternary compounds have also emerged as a promising candidate for solar cell absorber layers, due to their appropriate electrical and optical properties. [3] Particularly Cu3SbS4 has been a promising material and studied in great detail for its potential application owing to its striking properties with suitable optical and electrical properties along with tunable surface area which can be exploited for charge storage and discharge operations. Here we have made an effort to present a systematic strategy for the synthesis of various phases in Cu-Sb-S based chalcogenides with varying the amount of reducing agents. To get various ternary phases of Cu-Sb-S based chalcogenides, we have employed hydrazine as a reducing agent with varying proportions. Without any reducing agent, Cu3SbS4 phase is isolated in pure form. By adding small amount of hydrazine hydrate, CuSbS2 is formed in pure phase which transform to Cu3SbS3 phase with further increase in hydrazine amount. TEM and SEM-EDX analysis was carried out to understand the morphology, shape, size and composition of synthesized nanoparticles. X-ray photo electron spectroscopy study confirms the desired valence state of the constituent elements present in Cu3SbS4 and CuSbS2 nanoparticles. This study not only points out the new way of different Phase Formation in Cu-Sb-S ternary Chalcogenides but also has a great potential for application in high-performance energy storage devices