Phase Stability of the Earth-Abundant Tin Sulfides SnS, SnS2, and Sn2S3

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Lee A. Burton ; Aron Walsh
• 刊名：The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：November 15, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：116
• 期：45
• 页码：24262-24267
• 全文大小：340K
• 年卷期：v.116,no.45(November 15, 2012)
• ISSN：1932-7455

文摘

The various phases of tin sulfide have been studied as semiconductors since the 1960s and are now being investigated as potential earth-abundant photovoltaic and photocatalytic materials. Of particular note is the recent isolation of zincblende SnS in particles and thin-films. Herein, first-principles calculations are employed to better understand this novel geometry and its place within the tin sulfide multiphasic system. We report the enthalpies of formation for the known phases of SnS, SnS₂, and Sn₂S₃, with good agreement between theory and experiment for the ground-state structures of each. While theoretical X-ray diffraction patterns do agree with the assignment of the zincblende phase demonstrated in the literature, the structure is not stable close to the lattice parameters observed experimentally, exhibiting an unfeasibly large pressure and a formation enthalpy much higher than any other phase. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal spontaneous degradation to an amorphous phase much lower in energy, as Sn(II) is inherently unstable in a regular tetrahedral environment. We conclude that the known rocksalt phase of SnS has been mis-assigned as zincblende in the recent literature.