TiO2/Sb2S3 by ultrasonic spray method for rapid fabrication of a hybrid solar cell
Atanas Katerski a, Jako Siim Eensalu a, Erki Kärber a, Ilona Oja Acik a, Arvo Mere a, Malle Krunks a
a Department of Materials and Environmental Technology, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV18)
Benidorm, Spain, 2018 May 28th - 31st
Organizers: Emilio Palomares and Rene Janssen
Poster, Atanas Katerski, 144
Publication date: 21st February 2018

Offering new potential among stable inorganic photovoltaic absorbers for hybrid solar cells, Sb2S3 has been used to coat planar or mesoporous TiO2 [1–4]. Chemical Spray Pyrolysis is an economical method for producing thin oxide- or sulphide layers. The technique is scalable with little cost and is technically a simple method with no need for vacuum or inert gas supply. Spray has been recently used to deposit Sb2S3 [1,3] resulting in a 1.3%-efficient planar 1cm2 cell [1] but also 6.6%-efficient perovskite-based 1.5 cm2 mesoporous cells [4]. We develop a hybrid cell with TiO2 and Sb2S3 layers deposited by spray coating that uses ultrasonically generated mist of alcohol-dissolved precursor chemicals. The TiO2 followed by Sb2S3 are grown in a simple fume hood, in air, onto an ITO substrate at 200-250°C. We vary the ratio of sulphur source (thiourea) to antimony source (SbCl3) in the spray solution to inhibit formation of oxides and suppress sulphur-containing impurities. We optimise a two-step process for production of the Sb2S3 layer with the goal to develop a conformal coating on a nanostructured substrate, candidate being ZnO nanorod layer by electrochemical, spray, or chemical bath method. The as-deposited Sb2S3 layers are heat-treated up to 30 minutes at deposition temperatures, or, at 300°C for 5 minutes in vacuum, N2 or H2S environment. The morphology, chemical composition, structural and optical properties of the  Sb2S3 layers are characterized by SEM, Raman, XRD and UV-Vis methods, respectively. Heat treatment of Sb2S3 thin layers in N2, H2S, and vacuum improved crystallinity, density and substrate coverage. Additionally, heat treatment in H2S improved the stoichiometry of the Sb2S3 layers. We report single-phase crystalline Sb2S3 films with a band-gap of 1.7 eV, as grown by the low-cost ultrasonic spray pyrolysis followed by post-deposition heat-treatment. The Sb2S3 films were tested in planar solar cells using glass/ITO/TiO2/Sb2S3/P3HT/Au structure, with PV evaluation of the photovoltaic output by I-V curve and EQE measurements. With a 3.3% conversion efficiency from an active area of 0.9 cm2, and 5.5% from a cell with a small dot contact, both under solar simulator, the result is competitive with predicted improvement for the efficiency and the cell area.

1.Kärber et.al. Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1662–73.
2.Gödel et.al. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 8640.
3.Parize et.al. J. Phys. Chem. C. 2017, 121 (18), 9672–80.
4.Bishop et. al. Sci. Rep. 2017, 7(1), 7962.

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