Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth

Abstract Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) has attracted much attention due to its great prospect to construct highly efficient, cost‐effective, and environment‐friendly solar cells. The scalable close‐spaced sublimation (CSS) is a well‐developed physical deposition method to fabricate thin films for photovo...

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Main Authors: Wentao Wu, Bo Tang, Lei Wan, Xiaoli Mao, Haolin Wang, Guoqing Tong, Tao Chen, Ru Zhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-12-01
Series:Advanced Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202409312
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author Wentao Wu
Bo Tang
Lei Wan
Xiaoli Mao
Haolin Wang
Guoqing Tong
Tao Chen
Ru Zhou
author_facet Wentao Wu
Bo Tang
Lei Wan
Xiaoli Mao
Haolin Wang
Guoqing Tong
Tao Chen
Ru Zhou
author_sort Wentao Wu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) has attracted much attention due to its great prospect to construct highly efficient, cost‐effective, and environment‐friendly solar cells. The scalable close‐spaced sublimation (CSS) is a well‐developed physical deposition method to fabricate thin films for photovoltaics. However, the CSS‐processed absorber films typically involve small grain size with high‐density grain boundaries (GBs), resulting in severe defects‐induced charge‐carrier nonradiative recombination and further large open‐circuit voltage (VOC) losses. In this work, it is demonstrated that a chemical bath deposited‐Sb2S3 seed layer can serve as crystal nuclei and mediate the growth of large‐grained, highly compact CSS‐processed Sb2S3 films. This seed‐mediated Sb2S3 film affords reduced defect density and enhanced charge‐carrier transport, which yields an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.78% for planar Sb2S3 solar cells. Moreover, the VOC of 0.755 V that is obtained is the highest reported thus far for vacuum‐based evaporation and sublimation processed Sb2S3 devices. This work demonstrates an effective strategy to deposit high‐quality low‐defect‐density Sb2S3 films via vacuum‐based physical methods for optoelectronic applications.
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publishDate 2024-12-01
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spelling doaj-art-db14afb9bd904ebe945f5d1eec88d92a2025-08-20T01:59:00ZengWileyAdvanced Science2198-38442024-12-011146n/an/a10.1002/advs.202409312Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated GrowthWentao Wu0Bo Tang1Lei Wan2Xiaoli Mao3Haolin Wang4Guoqing Tong5Tao Chen6Ru Zhou7School of Electrical Engineering and Automation Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 P. R. ChinaSchool of Electrical Engineering and Automation Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 P. R. ChinaSchool of Electrical Engineering and Automation Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 P. R. ChinaSchool of Physics Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 P. R. ChinaHefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale School of Chemistry and Materials Science University of Science and Technology of China Hefei 230026 P. R. ChinaSchool of Materials Science and Engineering Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 P. R. ChinaHefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale School of Chemistry and Materials Science University of Science and Technology of China Hefei 230026 P. R. ChinaSchool of Electrical Engineering and Automation Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 P. R. ChinaAbstract Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) has attracted much attention due to its great prospect to construct highly efficient, cost‐effective, and environment‐friendly solar cells. The scalable close‐spaced sublimation (CSS) is a well‐developed physical deposition method to fabricate thin films for photovoltaics. However, the CSS‐processed absorber films typically involve small grain size with high‐density grain boundaries (GBs), resulting in severe defects‐induced charge‐carrier nonradiative recombination and further large open‐circuit voltage (VOC) losses. In this work, it is demonstrated that a chemical bath deposited‐Sb2S3 seed layer can serve as crystal nuclei and mediate the growth of large‐grained, highly compact CSS‐processed Sb2S3 films. This seed‐mediated Sb2S3 film affords reduced defect density and enhanced charge‐carrier transport, which yields an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.78% for planar Sb2S3 solar cells. Moreover, the VOC of 0.755 V that is obtained is the highest reported thus far for vacuum‐based evaporation and sublimation processed Sb2S3 devices. This work demonstrates an effective strategy to deposit high‐quality low‐defect‐density Sb2S3 films via vacuum‐based physical methods for optoelectronic applications.https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202409312close‐spaced sublimationopen‐circuit voltageseed‐mediated growthseed layersSb2S3 solar cells
spellingShingle Wentao Wu
Bo Tang
Lei Wan
Xiaoli Mao
Haolin Wang
Guoqing Tong
Tao Chen
Ru Zhou
Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth
Advanced Science
close‐spaced sublimation
open‐circuit voltage
seed‐mediated growth
seed layers
Sb2S3 solar cells
title Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth
title_full Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth
title_fullStr Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth
title_full_unstemmed Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth
title_short Enhanced Performance of Close‐Spaced Sublimation Processed Antimony Sulfide Solar Cells via Seed‐Mediated Growth
title_sort enhanced performance of close spaced sublimation processed antimony sulfide solar cells via seed mediated growth
topic close‐spaced sublimation
open‐circuit voltage
seed‐mediated growth
seed layers
Sb2S3 solar cells
url https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202409312
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