Antimony trisulfide solar cell with 5.84% performance

• The cell was produced by including a special additive that improves the reduced crystallinity and high resistivity of the antimony trisulfide film. In addition to the improved performance, the device showed an open-circuit voltage of 0.62 V, a short-circuit existing thickness of 15.85 mA/cm2 and also a fill aspect of 59.61%.

Researchers from the Northwestern Polytechnical University, in China, have developed a planar thin-film solar cell based upon antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) with a power conversion performance of 5.84%. As a means of comparison, a lot of the antimony trisulfide cells created to day have effectiveness close to 4%.

This type of cell typology has, until now, been far from getting to commercial production, as a result of the low crystallinity and high resistivity of the Sb2S3 film, which influences the device's efficiency in terms of effectiveness. Sb2S3, nonetheless, has a good bandgap, ranging from 1.70 to 1.90 eV, as well as an amazing light absorption coefficient, and also the researchers constructed their tool by using an additive referred to as 4-Chloro3-nitrobenzenesulfonyl Chloride (CSCl), which they claim has actually had the ability to relieve these issues.

The additive was spin-coated on a titanium oxide (TiO2) substratum as well as hardened to crystallization. Spiro-OMeTAD was made use of for the hole transport layer. "The intro of CSCl boosts the crystallinity of Sb2S3 film with [a] big grain dimension," they clarified, in the paper Effective additive for improving the efficiency of Sb2S3 planar thin film solar cells, which was lately published in The Journal of Materiomics. "And also the two terminal Cl of CSCl molecul [es] have interaction with Sb atoms, which contributes to boosting electron density around Sb atoms."

Moreover, the researchers clarified the use of CSCl did not change the thicknesses of Sb2S3 film which it elevates the Fermi degrees of Sb2S3 film, which in turn boosts the driving pressure for the electron transportation from the cell's Sb2S3 and TiO2 layers. The Fermi degrees define the reliable conversion of the energy of radiation right into electrochemical energy.

Tested under a basic lighting of AM 1.5 G, 2 tools with focus of 0.5% and also 3% CSCl additive showed a typical power conversion performance of 4.35% and also 4.98%, specifically. When the CSCl concentration was set at 1.5%, the cell accomplished an efficiency of 5.84%, an open-circuit voltage of 0.62 V, a short-circuit existing thickness of 15.85 mA cm2 and a fill aspect of 59.61%. "The Sb2S3 films with 0.5%, 1.5%, [as well as] 3% CSCl additive show a noticeable enhancement in the light absorption capacity, which stems from the boosted crystallinity of Sb2S3 film," the Chinese group mentioned