Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2019) 134: 505
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2019-12976-3

Regular Article

Deposition of SnS thin films by chemical bath deposition method: Effect of surfactants

¹ Université de Tunis El Manar, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, 2092, Tunis, Tunisia
² King Khalid University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 9004, 61413, Abha, Saudi Arabia
³ Université de Toulouse, INSA, UPS, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie des Nano-Objets, 31077, Toulouse, Cedex 4, France
⁴ Université Paris Diderot, SPC, CNRS, (UMR 7086), ITODYS, 15 rue Jean Antoine de Baïf, 75205, Paris, France

^* e-mail: agassoumi@kku.edu.sa

Received: 28 May 2019
Accepted: 2 September 2019
Published online: 11 October 2019

Abstract

Tin sulfide (SnS) thin films were obtained by chemical bath deposition (CBD) using two surfactants: anionic sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and cationic benzethonium chloride (BZC). The structural, morphological, chemical composition and optical properties of thin films were analyzed by using XRD, MEB, EDX, and spectrophotometer. The degradation efficiency of SnS films CBD grown without surfactant after 4h was found to be 65%, while it was for SnS grown with surfactant 83% for SnS(BZC) and 88% for SnS(SDS). The energy band gap values are found to be enhanced from 1.48eV for as deposited SnS thin film 1.44eV for SnS(BZC) and 1.41eV for SnS(SDS). The results demonstrated that tin sulfide (SnS) thin films have the potential to be used for optoelectronic applications.