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The impact of surface treatment on Al foil for Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films

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Abstract

Using Al foil as the substrate for Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) easily leads to oxidation, forming a high-resistance Al2O3 film that increases structural resistance. Herein, a plasma cleaning technology was developed for the surface treatment of Al foil. As the plasma cleaning voltage and time increased, the activation energy of A on Al foil decreased, enabling aluminum doping. The SEM images showed a decrease in porosity and an increase in grain size, while the XRD patterns revealed enhanced crystallinity, resulting in reduced resistance. Under the condition of 600 V for 2 h, the Al atomic ratio increased to 3.67%, the film thickness reached 2.7 μm, the average grain size was 1.06 μm, and the interface resistance was only 3.3 Ω. Additionally, the surface of the CZTS film deposited on aluminum foil was smooth, uniform, and compact. These results confirmed the feasibility of doping and surface treatment of Al foil using plasma cleaning.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 22179024, 21805046), and the Open Fund of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Storage Materials (Grant Number: AESM202111).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Guoxiang Chen, Weihai Fu, Chao Huang, Yuanzheng Yang & Weitong Cai

  2. Analysis and Test Center, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yanxue Wu & Beibei Jiang

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  1. Guoxiang Chen
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Contributions

Guoxiang Chen, Weihai Fu, and Weitong Cai designed the survey; Guoxiang Chen, Yanxue Wu, Beibei Jiang, Chao Huang, and Weihai Fu conducted the measurements and processed experimental data; Guoxiang Chen wrote most of the initial version of the text; Yuanzheng Yang was in charge Supervise and lead the planning and execution of research activities, including external mentoring of the core team. All authors contributed to the study strategy, discussion and interpretation of the results, and the final form of the text and figures. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Weitong Cai.

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Chen, G., Fu, W., Huang, C. et al. The impact of surface treatment on Al foil for Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 1735 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-13486-4

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