TY - JOUR
T1 - Transformations and Environmental Impacts of Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide Nanoparticles and Thin Films
AU - Pramanik, Sunipa
AU - Trejo, Nancy
AU - McLntire, Eileen
AU - Hudson-Smith, Natalie V.
AU - Tuga, Beza
AU - He, Jiayi
AU - Aydil, Eray
AU - Haynes, Christy L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported primarily by the National Science Foundation through the University of Minnesota MRSEC under award number DMR-2011401. Part of this work was performed in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering Characterization Facility, which has received capital equipment funding from the NSF through the UMN MRSEC program under award number DMR-2011401 and previous MRSEC awards. In addition, N.V.H.-S. acknowledges support through the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. BST acknowledges support from the University of Minnesota Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship. BioRender was used to create the TOC figure.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/5/24
Y1 - 2023/5/24
N2 - Quaternary chalcogenide copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) nanoparticles are used to make the p-type absorber layer in CZTS solar cells, which are considered more benign alternatives to those based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) and less expensive than copper indium gallium selenide. CZTS has an ideal band gap and a high absorption coefficient for solar radiation, making the nanoparticles an attractive option for photovoltaic cells. In this work, we explore the toxicity of CZTS nanoparticles using an environmentally relevant bacterial model Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. This study also focuses on understanding the stability of CZTS-based thin films and their direct interaction with bacterial cells. Bacterial cell viability, stability of nanoparticles and thin films, as well as mechanisms of toxicity were evaluated using various analytical tools. The CZTS nanoparticle suspensions show significant acute toxic effects on bacterial cells, but long-term (72 h) exposure of bacterial cells to CZTS-based thin films (made from nanoparticles) do not exhibit similar detrimental impacts on bacterial viability. This result is compelling because it suggests that CZTS nanomaterials will have minimal unintended toxicity as long as they are incorporated into a stable film structure.
AB - Quaternary chalcogenide copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) nanoparticles are used to make the p-type absorber layer in CZTS solar cells, which are considered more benign alternatives to those based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) and less expensive than copper indium gallium selenide. CZTS has an ideal band gap and a high absorption coefficient for solar radiation, making the nanoparticles an attractive option for photovoltaic cells. In this work, we explore the toxicity of CZTS nanoparticles using an environmentally relevant bacterial model Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. This study also focuses on understanding the stability of CZTS-based thin films and their direct interaction with bacterial cells. Bacterial cell viability, stability of nanoparticles and thin films, as well as mechanisms of toxicity were evaluated using various analytical tools. The CZTS nanoparticle suspensions show significant acute toxic effects on bacterial cells, but long-term (72 h) exposure of bacterial cells to CZTS-based thin films (made from nanoparticles) do not exhibit similar detrimental impacts on bacterial viability. This result is compelling because it suggests that CZTS nanomaterials will have minimal unintended toxicity as long as they are incorporated into a stable film structure.
KW - CZTS
KW - bacterial cell viability
KW - nanoparticle thin films
KW - nanoparticle transformations
KW - solar cells
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U2 - 10.1021/acsami.3c00374
DO - 10.1021/acsami.3c00374
M3 - Article
C2 - 37162157
AN - SCOPUS:85160022088
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 15
SP - 24978
EP - 24988
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
IS - 20
ER -