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Effect of complexing agents: investigations on structural, morphological, topographical and optical analysis of copper iron sulphide thin films deposited by chemical bath deposition method E. Anuja1 · R. Thiruneelakandan1 · K. Manikandan2 Received: 14 January 2018 / Accepted: 2 April 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract Copper iron sulphide ­(FeCuS2) thin films deposited by chemical bath deposition method using ferrous sulphate and copper sulphate as cationic sources and sodium sulphide as anionic source with complexing agents, EDTA and Leishman stain were reported. The structural, optical and morphological studies were carried out using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV–Visible spectroscopy techniques. The X-ray spectrum reveals that the films are polycrystalline nature and also showed the deposition of cubic phases at room temperature. The SEM images for prepared films have clear morphology influenced by the complexing agents used in deposition process. The result of AFM studies shown that the particles in the film have grain size around ~ 60–70 nm and also have almost similar thickness. Based on the optical absorbance spectra the ­FeCuS2 film exhibited a high absorbance in the visible region. The absorption edge shifted toward lower wavelength with varying complexing agents. The band gap value obtained was found to be 3.57–3.85 eV. From these results, it is indicated that the prepared films are suitable candidate for solar cell applications.

1 Introduction In the present scenario, solar energy can be effectively converted as thermal energy as solar heat or electric current termed as solar photovoltaic [1]. Thin films are highly popular as transducers for harnessing the solar energy [2]. In general, total energy acquired by these transducers are linear in proportional to the surface area. Hence, solar energy devices might have large surface area in order to acquire large amount of energy [3]. Today the researchers focus their research mainly on thin film materials that have versatile applications in photovoltaic, solar cell, photo-catalysis and superconducting materials having exponential growth [4]. The substrates and reagent materials are extensively used * E. Anuja [email protected] R. Thiruneelakandan [email protected] 1



Department of Chemistry, University College of Engineering, Anna University, BIT Campus, Tiruchirappalli 620024, India



Department of Physics, Bharathidasan University Constituent Model Arts and Science College for Women, Veppur 621717, India

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for making thin films which are abundant and cheap without toxic nature with wide applications. The thin film making technique should be done inquisitively in order to achieve an ultrathin and uniform film coating. The significant interests on research about ternary chalcogenide materials are growing exponentially [5]. There are different deposition techniques, viz. chemical bath deposition (CBD) [6], spray pyrolysis [7], metal organi