Synthesis and characterization of CoFe2O4 thin films for solar absorber application

Abstract

Spinel oxides synthetized by the electrochemical route can be used in different technological areas. In the present work, cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) thin films were deposited from sulfate bath on FTO-coated glass substrate by linear sweep voltammetry technique (LSV). We have investigated the effect of applied magnetic field B (AMF B) up to 0.5 T on the electrochemical response, the crystallographic texture, the morphology, the semiconductor type and the optical properties of the elaborated films. The structural and compositional analysis confirmed the synthesis of a well-crystallized CoFe2O4 with a good stoichiometry after an annealing treatment at 500 °C. Moreover, the CoFe2O4 films exhibited a p-type semiconductor as confirmed by the photo-electrochemical and Mott-Schottky tests. In addition, an increasing in the absorbance in the visible-UV region is observed under AMF B. Consequently, the magneto-electrodeposited CoFe2O4 thin films have a direct band gap energy of 1.5 eV.