High-Efficiency Sb2Se3 Solar Cells Modified by Potassium Hydroxide

Huafei Guo; Cong Zhao; Yelei Xing; Huijun Tian; Dacheng Yan; Shuai Zhang; Xuguang Jia; Jianhua Qiu; Ningyi Yuan; Jianning Ding

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03802

High-Efficiency Sb₂Se₃ Solar Cells Modified by Potassium Hydroxide

J Phys Chem Lett. 2021 Dec 30;12(51):12352-12359. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03802. Epub 2021 Dec 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Microelectronics and Control Engineering, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Province Cultivation base for State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Science and Technology, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China.
³ Institute of Intelligent Flexible Mechatronics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.

PMID: 34935382
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03802

Abstract

Antimony selenide (Sb₂Se₃) has attracted considerable attention for its simple composition, nontoxic nature, and abundance. However, the efficiency of Sb₂Se₃ solar cells is limited by the low carrier concentration and high recombination rate at the interface between Sb₂Se₃ and the Au layer. For this paper, the KOH solution used as the etchant was used to increase the efficiency of Sb₂Se₃ solar cells. The KOH solution not only reacts with (etching the surface) but also diffuses inside the Sb₂Se₃ film. This study unexpectedly demonstrates that KOH also increases the doping density and improves the back contact (the thin Sb₂O₃ layer exists with the etching of the KOH solution) of Sb₂Se₃ solar cells. Lastly, the best power conversion efficiency of 7.16% is demonstrated with a high open-circuit voltage of 0.407 V; we believe our work can serve as a guide for further development of high-efficiency Sb₂Se₃ solar cells.