Facile synthesis of Cu2ZnSnS4 powders by mechanical alloying and annealing

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) powders with complete crystal structure have been successfully prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) and annealing. The problem of pollution with this method has been studied.The synthesis process on the final production was also analyzed. The results show the crystal structure of the prefabricated CZTS powders synthesized by MA is incomplete, but it is easy to eliminate the defects and obtain final powders with complete crystal structure by annealing at a relatively low temperature. The optimum process is MA for 16 h and annealing at 390 °C for 2 h. The band gap of the CZTS powders is estimated to be about 1.49 eV in this optimum condition.