Morphological, Compositional and Optical Properties of CuxS Films on FTO Glass

In this study, by varying the concentrations of the precursors used, copper sulfide films were deposited on FTO glass using the sequential ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method and the following copper sulfide phases were detected: anilite, djurleite, chalcocite, and yarrowite. It was found that the films of copper sulfides are unevenly distributed, that the crystallinity of the films increases with increasing annealing temperature from 100 to 400 °C, and that the particles aggregate into agglomerates. The films formed were found to be dominated by copper sulfides, and the calculated molar ratio of copper to sulfur varied with the concentrations of the precursors used, ranging from 1.4 to 2.2. The values of the band gap energy were not significantly affected by the change in the concentrations of the precursors and the annealing temperature, varying between 1.0 and 1.5 and 1.95–2.15 eV.