Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cells fabricated with benign solvents

Abstract

Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) is considered as the promising absorbing layer materials for solar cells due to its earth-abundant constituents and excellent semiconductor properties. Through solution-processing, such as various printing methods, the fabrication of high performance CZTSSe solar cell could be applied to mass production with extremely low manufacturing cost and high yield speed. To better fulfill this goal, environmentalfriendly inks/solutions are optimum for further reducing the capital investment on instrument, personnel and environmental safety. In this review, we summarized the recent development of CZTSSe thin films solar cells fabricated with benign solvents, such as water and ethanol. The disperse system can be classified to the true solution (consisting of molecules) and the colloidal suspension (consisting of nanoparticles).Three strategies for stabilization (i.e., physical method, chemical capping and selfstabilization) are proposed to prepare homogeneous and stable colloidal nanoinks. The one-pot self-stabilization method stands as an optimum route for preparing benign inks for its low impurity involvement and simple procedure. As-prepared CZTSSe inks would be deposited onto substrates to form thin films through spin-coating, spraying, electrodeposition or successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method, followed by annealing in a chalcogen (S- or Se-containing) atmosphere to fabricate absorber. The efficiency of CZTSSe solar cell fabricated with benign solvents can also be enhanced by constituent adjustments, doping, surface treatments and blocking layers modifications, etc., and the deeper research will promise it a comparable performance to the nonbenign CZTSSe systems.