Low-dimensional antimony selenosulfide as an emerging material for solar cell applications

Abstract

Antimony chalcogenides (Sb2X3), including Sb2S3, Sb2Se3, and the alloy-type Sb2(S,Se)3, have been considered as a promising absorber materials for photovoltaic applications. Owing to its unique quasi-one-dimensional crystal structure, it displays distinct defect and carrier transport properties and requires special material synthesis strategy compared with the traditional three-dimensional crystal structure semiconductor materials. Recent studies on this class of materials have generated new understandings in film fabrication, defect characteristics and passivation, interfacial engineering, and efficiency improvement. With these efforts, the power conversion efficiency of the solar cell device has been increased from below 3% to 10.7% over the past 10 years. This efficiency achievement suggests that Sb2X3 possesses great potential for practical applications with further efficiency enhancement. This perspective article presents the critical development in the Sb2X3 materials and solar cells in recent years, including the unique crystal structure for solar cells, the preparation method for obtaining high-quality Sb2X3 films, and the discovery and passivation of unusual and complex defects. Finally, we propose several strategies for future efficiency improvement.