A non-toxic, solution-processed, earth abundant absorbing layer for thin-film solar cells

Woo, Kyoohee; Kim, Youngwoo; Moon, Jooho

doi:10.1039/c1ee02314d

Cited by 233 publications

(151 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The quaternary semiconductor Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) thin films have been considered to be potential candidate for thin film solar cells [1][2][3][4][5]. The CZTS thin films have large absorption coefficient ([10 4 cm -1 in the visible spectrum), direct optical band gap of about 1.5 eV, and p-type conductivity [6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on flexible metal foil substrates

Cao

Yang

et al. 2014

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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The vacuum-based magnetron sputtering was utilized to the fabrication of Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) thin films on flexible Al, Mo, and stainless steel foil substrates. The structural, compositional, and morphological properties of prepared thin films were investigated. According to the XRD and Raman results, for Al and Mo foil substrates, the structures of thin films are major CZTS and tiny secondary phase of Cu 2 SnS 3 . The preferred orientation of CZTS is along the (112) plane. The XRD peaks and Raman peaks of CZTS on Mo foil substrate are stronger than those on Al foil substrate. The calculated grain sizes are 33.6 and 39.0 nm for the thin films on Al and Mo foil substrates, respectively, indicating the higher crystallinity for Mo foil substrate samples. The compositions of thin films are near the stoichiometry of CZTS and show Cu-poor and Zn-rich properties. The surfaces of thin films are composed of compact grains. When using stainless steel foil as substrate, the fabricated thin films are composed of Cu 2 SnS 3 , FeS, and Zn, revealing the existence of sulfurization of Fe. The reaction between Fe and S inhibits the full sulfurization of Cu-Zn-Sn precursor, resulting in the absence of CZTS in the fabricated thin films. The composition of thin films is far from the stoichiometry of CZTS. In order to get desired properties of CZTS thin films, the inhibition of reaction between Fe and S is needed for stainless steel foil substrate.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on flexible metal foil substrates

Cao

Yang

et al. 2014

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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“…Specifically, it follows the reported reaction pathways of forming the CZTS phase from the binary sulfides and the potential ternary phases created at low temperatures, as described by the sequential reactions: 15,16 2CuS + SnS + ZnS → Cu 2 SnS 3 + ZnS → Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 [1] E. A. Lund et al 16 showed the CuS-ZnS-SnS pseudo-ternary phase diagram (at 325…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 The limited supply of indium (In) for copper indium diselenide (CIGS) and the concerns of toxic cadmium (Cd) for cadmium telluride (CdTe) make the search for earth-abundant and environment-friendly photovoltaic materials an urgent unresolved issue. CZTS is a cost-effective photovoltaic absorber with all of its constituent elements being abundant on our planet and its optical and electronic properties are similar to those of CIGS.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of Cu₂ZnSnS₄Films by Sulfurization of CuS-SnS-ZnS Precursors Using Ditert-butylsulfide at Atmospheric Pressure

Ni¹,

Lin²,

Lo³

et al. 2015

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) films were prepared by sulfurization of chemical bath deposited (CBD) CuS-ZnS-SnS precursors at atmospheric pressure using ditert-butylsulfide (DTBS). The characteristics of DTBS-sulfurized CZTS films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Based on the XRD and Raman results, tin sulfide (SnS) was formed at 500 and 550 • C under an insufficient exposure of sulfur-containing ambient. An increment of sulfurization time interval or DTBS admittance at high sulfurization temperatures tended to enable the formation of CZTS structure with improved stoichiometry and optical quality. Atmospheric pressure sulfurization of CZTS using DTBS was found to constitute another viable choice for the sulfurization of CuS-ZnS-SnS precursor. Under sufficient replenishment of DTBS at elevated sulfurization temperature, CZTS with improved stoichiometry was achieved by using DBTS sulfurization at atmospheric pressure. Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) is an I 2 -II-IV-VI 4 quaternary semiconductor compound possessing a high optical absorption coefficient of ∼10 4 cm −1 with a direct bandgap of ∼1.5 eV which is potentially suitable to serve as the absorbing material for thin film solar cells.1 The limited supply of indium (In) for copper indium diselenide (CIGS) and the concerns of toxic cadmium (Cd) for cadmium telluride (CdTe) make the search for earth-abundant and environment-friendly photovoltaic materials an urgent unresolved issue. CZTS is a cost-effective photovoltaic absorber with all of its constituent elements being abundant on our planet and its optical and electronic properties are similar to those of CIGS. In particular, the latest record-high conversion efficiency of 12.6% 2 has identified CZTS as a potential candidate of absorbing material for new generation of thin film photovoltaics.Both vacuum and non-vacuum deposition techniques were reported to deposit CZTS films including physical vapor deposition (PVD), pulsed laser deposition (PLD), spray pyrolysis, coevaporation, sputtering, successive ionic layer adsorption reaction, 3 sol-gel methods, 3 electro-deposition, and chemical bath deposition (CBD) 4,5 which were also previously employed for CIGS fabrication. Owing to the advantages of high throughput and low cost, there has recently been increasing interests in employing non-vacuum processes for CZTS fabrication.6 Among these processes, CBD is the simplest and most cost-effective technique in which the constituent sulfides of CZTS can be deposited by immersing the substrate in diluted solution containing copper, zinc, tin and sulfur species. Thus, the CuS-ZnSSnS precursors used in this study were prepared by CBD.One of the approaches for preparing CIGS absorber relies on selenization of the constituent Cu-In-Ga precursors in a seleniumcontaining ambient, which was reported to improve the crystallinity of CIGS films and make the composition close to stoichiometry. 7In a si...

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“…Recently, various approaches have been developed to fabricate the absorber layers, briefly including vacuumbased deposition and non-vacuum-based solution process; both strategies have yielded a remarkable improvement in photovoltaic performance [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Compared to vacuumbased approaches, non-vacuum technologies such as electrodeposition approach [9][10][11], milling dispersion approach [12], nanoparticle-based approach [13][14][15][16], hydrazine-based approach [17][18][19], and sol-gel approach [20][21][22][23][24] are more feasible for industrial production. Among those solution-based process, the hydrazine-based deposition has made the great progress, achieving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.6 % [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solution-Processed Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 Thin-Film Solar Cells Using Elemental Cu, Zn, Sn, S, and Se Powders as Source

Guo¹,

Pei²,

Zhou³

et al. 2016

Nano Online

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Solution-processed approach for the deposition of Cu 2 ZnSn (S,Se) 4 (CZTSSe) absorbing layer offers a route for fabricating thin film solar cell that is appealing because of simplified and low-cost manufacturing, large-area coverage, and better compatibility with flexible substrates. In this work, we present a simple solution-based approach for simultaneously dissolving the low-cost elemental Cu, Zn, Sn, S, and Se powder, forming a homogeneous CZTSSe precursor solution in a short time. Dense and compact kesterite CZTSSe thin film with high crystallinity and uniform composition was obtained by selenizing the low-temperature annealed spin-coated precursor film. Standard CZTSSe thin film solar cell based on the selenized CZTSSe thin film was fabricated and an efficiency of 6.4 % was achieved.

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A non-toxic, solution-processed, earth abundant absorbing layer for thin-film solar cells

Cited by 233 publications

References 30 publications

Characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on flexible metal foil substrates

Characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on flexible metal foil substrates

Properties of Cu₂ZnSnS₄Films by Sulfurization of CuS-SnS-ZnS Precursors Using Ditert-butylsulfide at Atmospheric Pressure

Solution-Processed Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 Thin-Film Solar Cells Using Elemental Cu, Zn, Sn, S, and Se Powders as Source

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A non-toxic, solution-processed, earth abundant absorbing layer for thin-film solar cells

Cited by 233 publications

References 30 publications

Characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on flexible metal foil substrates

Characterization of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films on flexible metal foil substrates

Properties of Cu2ZnSnS4Films by Sulfurization of CuS-SnS-ZnS Precursors Using Ditert-butylsulfide at Atmospheric Pressure

Solution-Processed Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 Thin-Film Solar Cells Using Elemental Cu, Zn, Sn, S, and Se Powders as Source

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Properties of Cu₂ZnSnS₄Films by Sulfurization of CuS-SnS-ZnS Precursors Using Ditert-butylsulfide at Atmospheric Pressure