Microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis of CuInSe2 chalcopyrites

Chalcopyrite, CuInSe2 was prepared by a fast microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis. The influence of reaction temperature, concentrations of the constituents, types of copper salts and added solvent on the morphology and crystallinity of the chalcopyrite has been investigated and also the optimized parameters are presented. The optimum crystallinity was obtained at 180 degrees C reaction temperature with 0.02 M of copper ion concentration. Interestingly, when the copper acetate was used as a copper source, particle size of chalcopyrite was dramatically reduced. Moreover, the synthesis at 1L scale of the reactants gave the particle size of 20 nm for CuInSe2 which is smaller than that of small scale synthesis (23-35 nm). XRD, SEM and Raman Spectroscopy techniques are used for characterization and evaluation of the morphology of the chalcopyrite.