Breakthrough to Non-Vacuum Deposition of Single-Crystal, Ultra-Thin, Homogeneous Nanoparticle Layers: A Better Alternative to Chemical Bath Deposition and Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

Most thin-film techniques require a multiple vacuum process, and cannot produce high-coverage continuous thin films with the thickness of a few nanometers on rough surfaces. We present a new ”paradigm shift” non-vacuum process to deposit high-quality, ultra-thin, single-crystal layers of coalesced sulfide nanoparticles (NPs) with controllable thickness down to a few nanometers, based on thermal decomposition. This provides high-coverage, homogeneous thickness, and large-area deposition over a rough surface, with little material loss or liquid chemical waste, and deposition rates of 10 nm/min. This technique can potentially replace conventional thin-film deposition methods, such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical bath deposition (CBD) as used by the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cell industry for decades. We demonstrate 32% improvement of CIGS thin-film solar cell efficiency in comparison to reference devices prepared by conventional CBD deposition method by depositing the ZnS NPs buffer layer using the new process. The new ZnS NPs layer allows reduction of an intrinsic ZnO layer, which can lead to severe shunt leakage in case of a CBD buffer layer. This leads to a 65% relative efficiency increase.

Potential of Iron Oxides in Photovoltaic Technology

“…For instance, to avoid problems in the hardware, many vacuum deposition machine setup parameters must be carefully handled, such as, in ALD, an early condensation of gas flux during injection to the chamber, inappropriate design of gas shower head that hinders large-area deposition in short growth time, inadequate speed of vacuum pumps prolongs the time for each deposition cycle. 131 Given its significant cost, complex procedures, and low throughput, the vacuum deposition process is unlikely preferable for deployment to many practical applications on an industrial scale. 131 Figure 6(a) provides an illustration of the vacuum deposition method of sputtered Fe 2 O 3 layer as ETL in a perovskite solar cell.…”

“…131 Given its significant cost, complex procedures, and low throughput, the vacuum deposition process is unlikely preferable for deployment to many practical applications on an industrial scale. 131 Figure 6(a) provides an illustration of the vacuum deposition method of sputtered Fe 2 O 3 layer as ETL in a perovskite solar cell. On the other hand, nonvacuum deposition methods are cheaper and more straightforward than vacuum deposition methods, which are essential to help realize low-cost solar cell devices.…”

Trend Synthesis Thin Film Research as Electronic Device (A Review)

“…Until now, various forms have been known and have been applied widely. Several ways used to grow thin layers include physical vapor deposition (PVD), such as evaporation and condensation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and chemical bath deposition (CBD) (Chaudhari et al, 2021;Liao et al, 2017;Obodo et al, 2023). These methods have the same goal: to produce thin layers of good quality at low production costs (Aboulkhair et al, 2019;Scopigno et al, 2017).…”

UV-Vis Activated Cu2O/SnO2/WO3 Heterostructure for Photocatalytic Removal of Pesticides

“…Under irradiation, the catalysts generate oxidative and superoxidative species that promote a complex series of oxidation reactions, aiming to induce the complete mineralization of the organic pollutants [ 16 ]. Monocomponent catalysts, such as TiO 2 [ 17 ], CuO [ 18 ], SnO 2 [ 19 ], WO 3 [ 20 ], ZnO [ 21 ], and Cu 2 S [ 22 ], exhibit a series of disadvantages, such as limited light absorption, low chemical stability, and fast charge carrier recombination. In order to overcome these issues, heterostructures and composite materials have been developed.…”