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

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Cheng Zhang & Jie Zhong

  2. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong Univesity of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Cheng Zhang, Jie Zhong & Jiang Tang

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  1. Cheng Zhang
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  2. Jie Zhong
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Correspondence to Jie Zhong or Jiang Tang.

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Cheng Zhang was an undergraduate student at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He obtained his bachelor degree under the supervision of Dr. Jie Zhong and Prof. Jiang Tang from 2014 to 2015. He will start his Ph.D. study in Prof. Jian Lin’s group at the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at University of Missouri-Columbia. His research focuses on advanced materials synthesis and processing.

Jie Zhong currently is an associate professor at State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology (WHUT). Before that, he worked at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer. He received his Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering in Central South University (CSU) in 2012. From 2008 to 2012, he conducted research as a visiting student and later as a research assistant at Department of Materials Engineering in Monash University. Jie’s research interest is now focused on synthesizing green inks of semiconductors (copper zinc tin sulfoselenide, perovskite and etc.), and producing photovoltaic and sensing devices via printing routes.

Jiang Tang is now a professor at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He received his bachelor’s degree from University of Science and Technology of China and his Ph.D. degree from University of Toronto in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Edward H. Sargent. His research interest is chalcogenide thin film solar cells and colloidal quantum dot optoelectronic devices. He is the research pioneer of antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) thin film photovoltaics.

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Zhang, C., Zhong, J. & Tang, J. Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cells fabricated with benign solvents. Front. Optoelectron. 8, 252–268 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-015-0539-2

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