Influence of calcination on the structural properties of earth abundant Cu2ZnSnS4

Abstract In the present work, we report on the synthesis of nano-crystalline kesterite copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) in powder form and the post-annealing process at high temperatures (calcination), and study their physical properties. We have successfully synthesized CZTS by direct fusion, and the resulting material was crushed to obtain a fine powder. Then, the resulting powder was calcined at high temperatures: 800–1000 ∘C. The calcined samples have been characterized with a number of different structural: X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and optical techniques: photoluminescence (PL), Raman and diffuse reflectance spectr…