The Properties of the Cu 3 SbS 3 Thin Film Co-Electrodeposited on the FTO Enriched with the DFT-Calculation

For the first time, the co-electrodeposition method was employed in the Cu 3 SbS 3 (CAS) thin film elaboration on Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide (FTO) at − 1 V/SCE (saturated calomel electrode). After one hour of sulfurization at 450 °C under an argon flow in the presence of sulfur powder, the elaborated samples are analyzed by: XRD technique showing the existence of the Cu 3 SbS 3 phase characteristic peaks at 30.03, 50.05 and 59.8° as well as the main peak 348 cm −1 of Cu 3 SbS 3 by Raman spectroscopy. Likewise, the UV–visible spectrophotometry technique indicated that this compound presents a direct gap of about 1.57 eV. To complete and confirm the experimental results of this CAS elaboration, a theoretical calculation on CAS was performed using the principles of the DFT + GGA + mbJ theory. The results of this DFT-calculation confirm the semiconductor character of CAS with an optical gap of about 1.49 eV.