Identification Of Abnormal Phase And Its Formation Mechanism In Synthesizing Chalcogenide Films

Chalcogenide films can be used in thin-film solar cells due to their high photoelectric conversion efficiencies. It was difficult to identify one abnormal phase with high X-ray diffraction (XRD) intensity and preferred orientation in the samples for preparing chalcogenide films by spin-coating and co-reduction on soda-lime glass (Na2O⋅CaO⋅6SiO2) substrates. The raw materials and reductant are metal chlorides and hydrazine hydrate respectively. In order to identify this phase, a series of experiments were done under different conditions. The phases of obtained products were analyzed by XRD and the size and morphology were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). From the experimental results, first it was proved that the abnormal phase was water-soluble by water immersion experiment, then it was identified as NaCl crystal through XRD, energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and SEM. The cubic NaCl crystals have high crystallinity with size lengths of about 0.5–2μm and show a <100> preferred orientation. The reaction mechanism of NaCl crystal was proposed as follows: The NaCl crystal was formed by reaction of Na2O and HCl in a certain experimental conditions.