Chalcogenide Materials and Derivatives for Photovoltaic Applications

Abstract

Chalcogenide AB(S,Se)3 materials have recently attracted increased attention as they could simultaneously solve both the stability and toxicity issues faced by conventional perovskite solar cells. Computer‐aided design of metal chalcogenide semiconductors has experienced important progress over the past few years, leading to the discovery of very promising AB(S,Se)3 compounds and derivatives for application as absorbers in thin‐film photovoltaic devices. Experimental evidence demonstrates that the synthesis of such compounds is possible, confirming the theoretical predictions, although more research work needs to be done to further investigate the optoelectrical properties of the corresponding thin films. With the aim to provide an exhaustive starting point to further develop chalcogenide absorbers and related devices, this Review presents both an overview of the predicted chalcogenide materials and interesting derivatives for thin‐film solar cells applications, as well as a summary of the synthesis techniques developed so far to prepare such materials. The possible challenges that can be encountered during the development of chalcogenide‐based solar cells are also discussed.

β‐CsCu5Se3: A Promising Thermoelectric Material going beyond Photovoltaic Application

“…Such a phenomenon has also been observed in many classic thermoelectric materials, including PbX, Bi 2 X 3 , Cu 2 X, SnX (X = S, Se). [ 16,17 ] Although β ‐CsCu 5 Se 3 shows great performance in photovoltaic applications, [ 15,18 ] the research on its lattice thermal conductivity and thermoelectric properties has not been reported yet, which motivates us to carry out this study. On the basis of density functional theory (DFT) combined with semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, we do find that β ‐CsCu 5 Se 3 possesses ultralow lattice thermal conductivities and a high ZT value, besides the reported photovoltaic features, exhibits high thermoelectric performance.…”

Kesterite Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 thin films synthesized utilizing electrodeposition: Influence of metal doping on the properties

“…The ternary and quaternary metal Chalcogenide have attracted attention as promising candidates for solar cell materials because of their high photostability, environmentally earth‐abundant elements, relatively enormous absorption coefficient exceeding 10 4 cm −1 , non‐toxic, optimal direct energy gap between 1.0 eV and 1.6 eV. P‐type chalcogenide materials such as Cu 2 ZnSnSe 4 (CZTSe),Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS),CdTe and Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS) have already demonstrated efficiency of more than 20% on a laboratory scale 1,2 . The efficiency of CIGS solar cell is over 20%, while CZTS solar cell is about 12%.…”

“…The efficiency of CIGS solar cell is over 20%, while CZTS solar cell is about 12%. However, the efficiency of kesterite‐based cells is till presently small Compared to Cu(In, Ga) Se 2 due to problems related to the material, such as defects and secondary phases 2,3 …”

Modeling the Ternary Chalcogenide Na2MoSe4 from First-Principles

“…Since then, an α phase of CsCu 5 Se 3 has been achieved and proposed as a high-performance thermoelectric [10] and an ab-initio study treats the defect physics in CsCu 5 Se 3 and its potential in optoelectronics [11]. In a recent review on chalcogenides for photovoltaic applications, CsCu 5 Se 3 and other new chalcogenides are compared to their oxide analogs [12], to highlight opportunities for new materials.…”