The current status and future prospects of kesterite solar cells: a brief review

Liu, Xiaolei; Yu, Feng; Cui, Hongtao; Liu, Fangyang; Hao, Xiaojing; Conibeer, Gavin; Mitzi, David B.; Green, Martin A.

doi:10.1002/pip.2741

Cited by 333 publications

(211 citation statements)

References 137 publications

(260 reference statements)

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“…These effects can be equally applicable to CIGS, Kesterite and Perovskite based thin film poly-crystalline solar cells also, 12 Schematic diagram showing the motion of photo-generated charge carriers in a device fabricated with epitaxial layers. The e-h recombination is high in these devices due to lack of separate paths for two different charge carriers since the literature shows their columnar growth patterns [70][71][72]. This effect could also take place in poly-crystalline silicon solar cells when rod-type crystals are formed normal to the wafer surface.…”

Section: Grain Boundary Enhanced Pv Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling complex nature of CdS/CdTe based thin film solar cells

Dharmadasa

Ojo

2017

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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and high-temperature growth techniques. The wide bandgap (E g = 2.42 eV) window material, CdS was mainly grown by chemical bath deposition (CBD) and narrow bandgap (E g = 1.45 eV) absorber material, CdTe was grown by over 14 different methods [1]. High efficiencies were achieved by the combination of CdS with CdTe layers grown by high temperature growth methods such as closed space sublimation (CSS) or close spaced vapour transport (CSVT) for a long period. Depending on the growth technique, material growth mechanisms, micro-structure and impurity inclusions are going to vary. Although there are a large number of publications reporting material characterisation, deep understanding is required on material issues such as defects and doping concentrations.The next area needing deeper understanding is the postgrowth chemical and heat treatment. The devices fabricated using as-made CdTe materials show poor device performance in the range ~(0-6)% depending on the growth technique used. However, from 1976 [2], the researchers were aware of the drastic improvement of the device performance after heat treatment around 450 °C in air, in the presence of CdCl 2 . This was known as "CdCl 2 treatment" and device efficiencies improved to mid-teens achieving good solar cell performance. Although there were tremendous efforts to explore the complexity of changes during this treatment, full understanding has not yet been achieved.The third main area of complexity comes from the CdTe/electrical back contact formation. It is essential to clean the CdTe surface after CdCl 2 treatment, and researchers were using different chemicals to clean the surface prior to metallisation. Various electrical contacts have been used to complete the devices and varying results have been reported in the literature [3]. Initial high efficiency, reproducibility and yield, stability and lifetime are main features of fully fabricated devices to establish. Some of these Abstract Thin film solar cells based on CdS/CdTe hetero-structure has shown a drastic improvement changing from 16.5 to 22.1% efficiency during a short period of time from ~2013 to ~2016. This has happened in the industrial environment and the open research in this field has stagnated over a period of two decades prior to ~2013. Most of the issues of this hetero-structure were not clear to the photovoltaic (PV) community and research efforts should be directed to unravel its complex nature. Issues related to materials, post-growth treatment, chemical etching prior to metallisation and associated device physics are the main areas needing deeper understanding in order to further develop this device. After a comprehensive research programme in both academia and in industry on these materials, surfaces and interfaces and fully fabricated devices over a period of over three decades by the main author, the current knowledge as understood today, on all above mentioned complex issues are presented in this paper. Full understanding of this structure will enable PV developers to further improve the ...

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Section: Grain Boundary Enhanced Pv Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling complex nature of CdS/CdTe based thin film solar cells

Dharmadasa

Ojo

2017

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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“…As shown in Figure 1, kesterite solar cells and particularly Cd&CRM-free devices suffer as well from reduced FF compared to chalcopyrite ones 12,14 . This lower FF is mainly due to a higher series resistance (RS) 64 : state-of-the-art CZTSSe devices exhibit RS~0.7 Ω.cm 2 17 compared to RS~0.3 Ω.cm 2 for CIGSSe devices 31 and a slightly lower shunt resistance (RSh).…”

Section: Mapping Of Fundamental Failures In Cd-free Kesterite Solar Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different review articles have been published to tentatively explain the efficiency limitation of kesterite solar cells [11][12][13][14] . All of them notice first the large VOC deficit (expressed as EG/q-VOC where EG is absorber bandgap and q the elemental charge) of kesterite devices followed by low FF and JSC to a lesser extent similarly as the observation made in Figure 1.…”

Section: Mapping Of Fundamental Failures In Cd-free Kesterite Solar Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of Failure Modes in Kesterite Solar Cells

Grenet

Suzon

Emieux

et al. 2018

ACS Appl. Energy Mater.

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An intense research activity has been carried out in the past few years to improve efficiencies and understand limitations in kesterite based solar cells. Despite notable efforts to determine and list the different failure modes affecting the photovoltaic properties of these devices, very few works try to quantify and classify the effect of these failure modes. In this study, an exhaustive literature review has first been conducted to determine the different causes leading to limited efficiencies in kesterite devices with an additional focus on cadmium free and critical raw material free devices. Second, an original approach has been employed to quantify the impact of these failure modes on solar cells with the evaluation of feedbacks from 18 scientific experts working on kesterite technology. The result of this survey is analyzed, which allow to determine what should be the research priority for the community to improve efficiencies and drive kesterite technology to the market.

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“…56,57 CZTS based CEs are reported to exhibit better performance than Pt CE. Potential of CZTS for applications in DSSC as CE is relatively new.…”

Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

A review on applications of Cu2ZnSnS4 as alternative counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

et al. 2018

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A contribution of counter electrode (CE) emphasis a great impact towards enhancement of a dye-sensitized solar cell's (DSSC) performance and Pt based CE sets a significant benchmark in this field. Owing to cost effective noble metal, less abundance and industrial large scale application purpose, an effective replacement for Pt is highly demanded. There are several approaches to improve the performance of a CE for enhancing the power conversion efficiency with a less costly and facile device. To address this issue, reasonable efforts execute to find out suitable replacement of Pt is becoming a challenge by keeping the same electrochemical properties of Pt in a cheaper and eco-friendlier manner. With this, cheaper element based quaternary chalcogenide, Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) becomes a prominent alternative to Pt and used as a successful CE in DSSC also. This review presents brief discussion about the basic properties of CZTS including its synthesis strategy, physicochemical properties and morphology execution and ultimate application as an alternative Pt free CE for a low cost based enhanced DSSC device. It is therefore, imperative for engineering of CZTS material and optimization of the fabrication method for the improvement of DSSC performance.

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The current status and future prospects of kesterite solar cells: a brief review

Cited by 333 publications

References 137 publications

Unravelling complex nature of CdS/CdTe based thin film solar cells

Unravelling complex nature of CdS/CdTe based thin film solar cells

Analysis of Failure Modes in Kesterite Solar Cells

A review on applications of Cu2ZnSnS4 as alternative counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells

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