Efficient and Stable Antimony Selenoiodide Solar Cells

Abstract

Although antimony selenoiodide (SbSeI) exhibits a suitable bandgap as well as interesting physicochemical properties, it has not been applied to solar cells. Here the fabrication of SbSeI solar cells is reported for the first time using multiple spin-coating cycles of SbI 3 solutions on Sb 2 Se 3 thin layer, which is formed by thermal decomposition after depositing a single-source precursor solution. The performance exhibits a short-circuit current density of 14.8 mA cm −2 , an open-circuit voltage of 473.0 mV, and a fill factor of 58.7%, yielding a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.1% under standard air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW cm −2 ). The cells retain ≈90.0% of the initial PCE even after illuminating under AM 1.5G (100 mW cm −2 ) for 2321 min. Here, a new approach is provided for combining selenide and iodide as anions, to fabricate highly efficient, highly stable, green, and low-cost solar cells.Small effective mass, large dielectric constant, high band dispersion level, and valence band maximum with antibonding states are desirable properties for highly efficient and defect-tolerant light harvesters. [1] Most of the aforementioned properties exist in materials containing metal cations with ns 2 valence electron configuration, [2] owing to their high bandwidth conduction band and high Born effective charge derived from large spin-orbit effects as well as their soft Polaris ability. Popular light harvesters including halides or chalcogenides of Pb 2+ , [3] Sn 2+ , [4] Ge 2+ , [5] Sb 3+ , [6] and Bi 3+[7] contain metal cations with the ns 2 valence electron configuration. However, most of them are affected by one or several issues, such as low efficiency, low stability, toxicity, and high cost. Hence, efficient, stable, green, and low-cost light-harvesters must be developed.As important material exhibiting the ns 2 electronic configuration, metal chalcohalides have received extensive attention owing to their interesting physical and chemical properties. [8] Because of the distinct bonding preferences of chalcogenide and halide atoms, to form stable sites in compounds, the competition among atoms might yield unique structures and properties. [9] Additionally, a wide bandgap range can be obtained in these materials because halide and chalcogenide coexist as anions; hence,

Hidden spontaneous polarisation in the chalcohalide photovoltaic absorber Sn2SbS2I3

“…5 Chalcohalide PIMs offer a route around this issue, demonstrating remarkably higher air and water stability -due to the increased strength of metal-chalcogen bonding 4,5 -while retaining the ns 2 cation -halide anion combination. These materials have already demonstrated promising efficiencies (>4 % 1,6,7 ) alongside lowcost fabrication methods, representing a fertile area for stable, non-toxic high-performance solar cells. 8 Further increases in power-conversion efficiencies (PCEs) will be required to achieve commercial viability.…”

One-Step Solution Deposition of Antimony Selenoiodide Films via Precursor Engineering for Lead-Free Solar Cell Applications

“…These features make them attractive alternatives to Pb perovskites, which are being widely studied in terms of their use in next-generation solar cells. However, the highest device efficiency of solar cells using ternary chalcohalides that has been reported so far is less than 5% [5], which is far below that of Pb perovskites solar cells (>25%) [6,7], and little work has been conducted to date on improving their efficiency. Further work is therefore required to improve device performance.…”

“…Sb/Bi chalcohalides have been fabricated for solar cell applications using various methods [2]. Among these, the two-step solution-phase method has been demonstrated to be effective in the fabrication of various materials [5,[8][9][10][11][12]. In this approach, chalcohalides are obtained via the conversion of chalcogenides formed in the first step of the two-step method, and so the compositions of the final products can be controlled depending on the chalcogenide and halide species used in the first and second steps, respectively.…”

“…In this approach, chalcohalides are obtained via the conversion of chalcogenides formed in the first step of the two-step method, and so the compositions of the final products can be controlled depending on the chalcogenide and halide species used in the first and second steps, respectively. To date, various materials, such as SbSI [8,10], (Sb,Bi)SI [9], BiSI [11], SbSeI [5], and Sb(S,Se)I [12], have been fabricated using this method. In addition, an efficiency of ~4.1% was obtained using this method from solar cells based on antimony selenoiodide SbSeI [5].…”

“…To date, various materials, such as SbSI [8,10], (Sb,Bi)SI [9], BiSI [11], SbSeI [5], and Sb(S,Se)I [12], have been fabricated using this method. In addition, an efficiency of ~4.1% was obtained using this method from solar cells based on antimony selenoiodide SbSeI [5]. Despite remarkable progress, however, this method has limitations when it comes to obtaining a pure-phase film.…”