A kinetic of the thermo-oxidative decomposition of CIGS nanoparticles is investigated with a thermogravimetric analyzer with non-isothermal methods. The weight loss was measured by TGA in the air atmosphere. The samples were heated over a range of temperatures from 300 K to 1,100 K with three different heating rates of 2, 5, and 10°C min-−1. The results obtained from the thermal decomposition process indicate that there are two stages of thermal decomposition in the temperature range. The binary/ternary selenide is formed in the first stage. The invariant activation energy and frequency factor (LNA) in the first stage are 143.76 kJ/mol and 20.93 1/sec, respectively. In the second stage, the selenide begins to be oxidized to form a metal oxide. The invariant activation energy and frequency factor (LNA) in the second stage are 222.81 kJ/mol and 25.90 1/sec, respectively. The determined most probable g(α) functions are g(α) = (1-α) −2-1 for both stages.

1. S. Ahn, C. Kim, J. Yun, J. Lee, and K. Yoon, “Effects of heat treatments on the properties of Cu (In, Ga) Se2 nanoparticles,” Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 91, no. 19, pp. 1836–1841, 2007. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2007.06.014
2. M. A. Greeny, K. Emery, Y. Hishikawa, and W. Warta, “Solar cell efficiency tables (version 37),”Progress in Photovoltaics, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 84–92,2011.
3. K. Ramanathan, M. A. Contreras, C. L. Perkins, S. Asher, F. S. Hasoon, J. Keane, D. Young, M. Romero, W. Metzger, R. Noufi et al., “Properties of 19.2% efficiency ZnO/CdS/CuInGaSe2 thin-film solar cells,” Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 225–230, 2003. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.494
4. I. Repins, M. A. Contreras, B. Egaas, C. DeHart, J. Scharf, C. L. Perkins, B. To, and R. Noufi, “19· 9%-efficient ZnO/CdS/CuInGaSe2 solar cell with 81· 2% fill factor,” Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and applications, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 235–239, 2008. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.822
5. Y.-H. Li, Thermal Analysis. Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Tsing Hua University, 1978.
6. Z. Xu, C. Shen, Y. Hou, H. Gao, and S. Sun, “Oleylamine as both reducing agent and stabilizer in a facile synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles,” Chemistry of Materials, vol. 21, no. 9, pp. 1778–1780, 2009. doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/cm802978z
7. J. P. Elder, “Thee-ln (a)-f (α)’triplet in nonisothermal reaction kinetics analysis,” Thermochimica Acta, vol. 318, no. 1-2, pp. 229–238, 1998. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6031(98)00347-5
8. D. Trache, A. Abdelaziz, and B. Siouani, “A simple and linear isoconversional method to determine the pre-exponential factors and the mathematical reaction mechanism functions,” Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 335–348, 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-016-5962-0
9. P. Gallagher and D. Johnson Jr, “Kinetics of the thermal decomposition of CaCO3 in CO2 and some observations on the kinetic compensation effect,” Thermochimica Acta, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 255–261, 1976. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-6031(76)85002-2
10. G. Manikandan, G. Rajarajan, J. Jayabharathi, and V. Thanikachalam, “Structural effects and thermal decomposition kinetics of chalcones under nonisothermal conditions,” Arabian Journal of Chemistry, vol. 9, pp. 570–575, 2016. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2011.06.029
11. L. Xia, L. Zuo, X. Wang, D. Lu, and R. Guan, “Non-isothermal kinetics of thermal degradation of DGEBA/TU-DETA epoxy system,” Journal of
    Adhesion Science and Technology, vol. 28, no. 18, pp. 1792–1807, 2014. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01694243.2014.922454
12. L. Shi and D. Northwood, “A note on ostwald ripening kinetics and reaction rate theory,” Physica Status Solidi (a), vol. 133, no. 1, pp. 1–5, 1992. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.2211330119
13. J. Zhang, Z. Lin, Y. Lan, G. Ren, D. Chen, F. Huang, and M. Hong, “A multistep oriented attachment kinetics: Coarsening of ZnS nanoparticle in concentrated NaOH,” Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 128, no. 39, pp. 12 981–12 987, 2006. doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/ja062572a

H.-M. Lin, K.-C. Hsu, and J.-H. Chen, “The pyrolysis characteristics and thermogravimetric kinetic analysis of the pyrolysis of CIGS nanocrystals,” International Journal of Applied and Physical Sciences, vol. 7, pp. 27–35. 2021. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijaps.7.50004