Crystal engineering and thin-film deposition strategies towards improving the performance of kesterite photovoltaic cell

Nwambaekwe, Kelechi C.; John-Denk, Vivian Suru; Douman, Samantha F.; Mathumba, Penny; Yussuf, Sodiq Tolulope; Uhuo, Onyinyechi V.; Ekwere, Precious; Iwuoha, Emmanuel I.

doi:10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.03.047

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 242 publications

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“…Surprisingly, it emerges a substantial scarcity of TE investigation for the thin film configuration of these materials, [67,68] despite the vast knowledge acquired in their fabrication and PV characterization. [46,[69][70][71] Following literature guidelines on bulk counterparts, [60,66] a 12.5% Cu doped (in place of Zn) composition is selected for the thin films fabricated in this work.…”

Section: Structural Optical and Compositional Characterization Of The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Low Cost and Sustainable Thin Film Thermoelectric Devices Based on Quaternary Chalcogenides

Isotta

Andrade‐Arvizu

Syafiq

et al. 2022

Adv Funct Materials

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A major challenge in thermoelectrics (TEs) is developing devices made of sustainable, abundant, and non-toxic materials. Furthermore, the technological drive toward low sizes makes crucial the study of nano and micro configurations. In this work, thin film TE devices based on p-type Cu 2+x Zn 1-x SnS 4 and Cu 2+x Zn 1-x SnSe 4 , and n-type Al y Zn 1-y O are fabricated by physical vapor deposition. The kesterite phases show good purity and promising TE power factor, likely enhanced by the copper-zinc order-disorder transition. Thin film generators in planar configuration are assembled by a sequential deposition of the p-type, n-type, and contact materials. The power per unit planar area reaches 153 and 279 nW cm -2 for the sulphurand selenium-based generators, respectively. These values significantly outperform any other literature attempt based on sustainable and low-cost thin films. Furthermore, if compared with traditional TEs often made of scarce and toxic materials, these devices offer a cost reduction above 80%. This allows reaching comparable values of power density per unit material cost, representing a first real step toward the development of sustainable and non-toxic thin film TE devices. These can find applications in micro energy harvesters, microelectronics coolers, and temperature controllers for wearables, medical appliances, and sensors for the internet of things.

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Section: Structural Optical and Compositional Characterization Of The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Low Cost and Sustainable Thin Film Thermoelectric Devices Based on Quaternary Chalcogenides

Isotta

Andrade‐Arvizu

Syafiq

et al. 2022

Adv Funct Materials

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“…Encouraging results came from the mixed chalcogenide solar cells Cu 2 ZnSn x Ge 1– x (S,Se) 4 (CZTGSSe) that reached efficiencies around 11–12% with a germanium content ≤ 40% (Sn ≥ 60%), thus also reporting low band gaps not suitable for tandem applications as top cells. 24 As for the pure sulfide version of the CZTGS material, very low efficiencies have been reported for a high germanium content, 23 and the current record for fully germanium-substituted kesterite CZGS is around 0.7%. 22 However, except for the PV field, other interesting applications of these materials can also be investigated, such as CO 2 reduction, which had already been reported with extremely good results by Ikeda and coworkers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Band-Gap Tuning Induced by Germanium Introduction in Solution-Processed Kesterite Thin Films

et al. 2022

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In the last few decades, the attention of scientific community has been driven toward the research on renewable energies. In particular, the photovoltaic (PV) thin-film technology has been widely explored to provide suitable candidates as top cells for tandem architectures, with the purpose of enhancing current PV efficiencies. One of the most studied absorbers, made of earth-abundant elements, is kesterite Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS), showing a high absorption coefficient and a band gap around 1.4–1.5 eV. In particular, thanks to the ease of band-gap tuning by partial/total substitution of one or more of its elements, the high-band-gap kesterite derivatives have drawn a lot of attention aiming to find the perfect partner as a top absorber to couple with silicon in tandem solar cells (especially in a four-terminal architecture). In this work, we report the effects of the substitution of tin with different amounts of germanium in CZTS-based solar cells produced with an extremely simple sol–gel process, demonstrating how it is possible to fine-tune the band gap of the absorber and change its chemical–physical properties in this way. The precursor solution was directly drop-cast onto the substrate and spread with the aid of a film applicator, followed by a few minutes of gelation and annealing in an inert atmosphere. The desired crystalline phase was obtained without the aid of external sulfur sources as the precursor solution contained thiourea as well as metal acetates responsible for the in situ coordination and thus the correct networking of the metal centers. The addition of KCl in dopant amounts to the precursor solution allowed the formation of well-grown compact grains and enhanced the material quality. The materials obtained with the optimized procedure were characterized in depth through different techniques, and they showed very good properties in terms of purity, compactness, and grain size. Moreover, solar-cell prototypes were produced and measured, exhibiting poor charge extraction due to heavy back-contact sulfurization as studied in depth and experimentally demonstrated through Kelvin probe force microscopy.

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“…Although previous theoretical studies estimated a band gap of about 0.2 eV in CZTS, previous experimental results showed a much larger band gap of about 1.5 eV. [81,82] This was ascribed to the limitations of GGA-PBE functional, since the discontinuity of exchange correlation potential is not taken into account in DFT. [83] To overcome the shortcomings of the GGA-PBE functional, we utilized the TB-mBJ potential to compute the band structures.…”

Section: Chemelectrochemmentioning

confidence: 95%

Fabrication of CZTS Films through a Combined Electrodeposition and Solution Process: An Experimental and First‐Principles Study

Katirci,

Onel,

Danaci

et al. 2023

ChemElectroChem

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Sulfurization has a critical role in preparation of CZTS films since the main drawback of CZTS is due to the presence of S‐based impurities. In general, sulfurization could be performed during or following annealing, or the entire CZTS structure could be prepared through sol‐gel. However, toxic gases are used for the former, and the latter takes prolonged times. Alternatively, a combined electrodeposition and solution process was proposed in the present work to prepare CZTS. Briefly, we electrodeposited CZT layers on a metal substrate, and then immersed the as‐prepared coating in a S containing solution for the sulfurization. The effects of electrodeposition time, electrodeposition order, current density, electrolyte compositions, sulfurization time, and annealing pressure were studied. Overall, the results show that S content of the films varied between 27 and 52 % depending on process parameters, thus, suggesting the effectiveness of the proposed approach regarding sulfurization. However, various secondary phases were also detected as well as considerable amount of oxygen impurity. Accordingly, we opted for a computational approach to elucidate the effect of oxygen impurities, and report that the band gap of the films varied between 0.59 and 0.05 eV depending on the presence and which sites oxygen atoms occupy.

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Crystal engineering and thin-film deposition strategies towards improving the performance of kesterite photovoltaic cell

Cited by 23 publications

References 242 publications

Towards Low Cost and Sustainable Thin Film Thermoelectric Devices Based on Quaternary Chalcogenides

Towards Low Cost and Sustainable Thin Film Thermoelectric Devices Based on Quaternary Chalcogenides

Band-Gap Tuning Induced by Germanium Introduction in Solution-Processed Kesterite Thin Films

Fabrication of CZTS Films through a Combined Electrodeposition and Solution Process: An Experimental and First‐Principles Study

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