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Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorbers prepared by electrodeposition for low-cost thin-film solar cells

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Abstract

Reducing the manufacturing cost of solar cells is necessary to their industrial production. Electrodepositing is an effective, non-vacuum method which is very suitable for cutting the manufacturing cost of thin films as well as developing its large-scale industrial production. In this study, about 1-μm-thick Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) precursors were electrodeposited on Mo/glass substrates in aqueous solution utilizing a three-electrode potentiostatic system. Triethanolamine was used as complexing agent, and all parameters of electrodeposition were precisely controlled. After that, the electrodeposited precursors were selenized in a Se atmosphere with different heating ramp rates (60 and 600 °C·min−1). High-quality CIGS films were obtained, and their characteristics were investigated by X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectra and near-infrared–visible (NIR-Vis) spectra. The results reveal that there are many differences between the properties of the films under different heating rates. Finally, CIGS solar cells were fabricated using a fast and a slow heating rate. The maximum efficiencies achieved for the films selenized at 60 and 600 °C·min−1 are 3.15% and 0.71%, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2015AA034201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11474355) and the Chinese Universities Scientific Fund (No. 2017LX002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Jing-Yu Qu, Zheng-Fei Guo, Kun Pan, Wei-Wei Zhang & Xue-Jin Wang

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  1. Jing-Yu Qu
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  2. Zheng-Fei Guo
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  3. Kun Pan
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Correspondence to Xue-Jin Wang.

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Qu, JY., Guo, ZF., Pan, K. et al. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorbers prepared by electrodeposition for low-cost thin-film solar cells. Rare Met. 36, 729–736 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-017-0941-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-017-0941-6

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