Abstract
Earth-abundant and non-toxic Kesterite-based Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin film solar cells are successfully fabricated on flexible Molybdenum (Mo) foil substrates by an electrodeposition-annealing route. A well-adherent, densely packed, homogeneous, compact, and mirror-like CZT precursor is initially produced through electrodeposition by using a rotating working electrode. Subsequently, the co-electrodeposited CuZnSn (CZT) precursor is sulfurized in quartz tube furnace at 550 °C for 2 h in N2 atmosphere with the presence of elemental sulfur in order to form CZTS. Different characterization techniques like XRD, SEM, HR-TEM, Raman, and Photoluminescence demonstrate that almost phase-pure CZTS formed after sulfurization. A flexible Al/Al-ZnO/i-ZnO/CdS/CZTS/Mo foil solar cell is produced, where CdS is deposited by chemical bath deposition and transparent conducting oxide (TCO) is deposited by DC sputtering. The CZTS solar device shows a 0.55% power conversion efficiency on flexible Mo foil substrate and it constitutes the first prototype of this kind of solar cell produced by electrodeposition-annealing route without any surface modification of the Mo substrate.Graphic abstract
Highlights
In order to make a real impact on worldwide energy demand, solar materials should be cheap, non-toxic, and earth-abundant, and they should provide high functional lifetime with high power conversion efficiency (PCE)
Average roughness of the CZT film was around 94 nm, while substrate roughness was around 100 nm, which is quite commendable for the co-electrodeposition of CZT. 3.2 Characterization of sulfurized CZTS on flexible
A CZTS thin film solar cell was successfully synthesized on flexible Mo foil substrate by the electrodepositionannealing method with 0.55% power conversion efficiency
Summary
In order to make a real impact on worldwide energy demand (at the TW level), solar materials should be cheap, non-toxic, and earth-abundant, and they should provide high functional lifetime with high power conversion efficiency (PCE). Besides inappropriate chemical composition of the metallic precursors, binary/ternary chalcogenide phases could be created due to decomposition of Kesterites at high temperature during sulfurization or selenization [13].Till different vacuum and non-vacuum deposition techniques have been deployed to fabricate Kesterites (CZTS, CZTSe and CZTSSe) Both vacuum and non-vacuum techniques are very much in competition on conversion efficiency, and in some cases, non-vacuum processes are even more efficient, contrary to the case of CIGS cells where vacuum-based techniques deliver higher conversion efficiencies [8]. We fabricated 0.55% efficient CZTS thin film solar cells on flexible Mo foil substrate through electrodeposition-annealing route. Fabrication process can be considerably simplified and optimized in terms of cost and time
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