One-pot, rapid synthesis of chalcopyrite CuInSe2 nanoparticles for low-cost thin film solar cell

•A facile and rapid one-pot synthesis method is presented.•The effects of reaction temperature and reaction time are investigated.•Pure chalcopyrite CISe nanoparticles can be easily synthesized by one-pot method.•The possible reaction mechanism of one-pot method is proposed.•The CISe nanoparticles are highly dispersed with particle size of 50-300 nm.

In this work, highly dispersed and near stoichiometric chalcopyrite CuInSe2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via a facile and rapid one-pot method. The effects of reaction temperature and reaction time on the crystal phase, morphology, element composition and the absorption spectrum of the as-synthesized CuInSe2 nanoparticles were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and UV-Vis-IR spectrophotometer, respectively. The XRD patterns showed that the as-synthesized nanoparticles had pure chalcopyrite phase with the particle size in the range of 50–300 nm confirmed by FE-SEM images. The Vis-IR absorption spectra showed strong absorption in the entire visible light to near-infrared region, the estimated band gap of the as-synthesized nanoparticles matched very well with that of the bulk CuInSe2 material. All results suggested that the as-synthesized CuInSe2 nanoparticles were good light absorber layer material for thin film solar cell.

Graphical abstractChalcopyrite and near stoichiometric CuInSe2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via a facile and rapid one-pot method. The as-synthesized CuInSe2 nanoparticles are highly dispersed with particle size in the range of 50–300 nm, and the possible reaction mechanism is proposed.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide