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Solution-processed solar cells based on environmentally friendly AgBiS2 nanocrystals

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 521–525 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solution-processed inorganic solar cells are a promising low-cost alternative to first-generation solar cells1,2. Solution processing at low temperatures combined with the use of non-toxic and abundant elements can help minimize fabrication costs and facilitate regulatory acceptance. However, at present, there is no material that exhibits all these features while demonstrating promising efficiencies. Many of the candidates being explored contain toxic elements such as lead or cadmium (perovskites2,3, PbS4, CdTe5,6 and CdS(Se)7,8) or scarce elements such as tellurium or indium (CdTe and CIGS(Se)/CIS9,10). Others require high-temperature processes such as selenization or sintering, or rely on vacuum deposition techniques (Sb2S(Se)311,12,13, SnS14,15 and CZTS(Se)16). Here, we present AgBiS2 nanocrystals as a non-toxic17, earth-abundant18 material for high-performance, solution-processed solar cells fabricated under ambient conditions at low temperatures (≤100 °C). We demonstrate devices with a certified power conversion efficiency of 6.3%, with no hysteresis and a short-circuit current density of ∼22 mA cm−2 for an active layer thickness of only ∼35 nm.

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Figure 1: Properties of AgBiS2 nanocrystals.
Figure 2: Effect of ligand treatment on AgBiS2 properties and solar-cell performance.
Figure 3: Solar cell characterization.
Figure 4: Optoelectronic characterization of TMAI-treated AgBiS2 solar cells.
Figure 5: Newport certification of AgBiS2 solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. Osmond for ellipsometry measurements and H. Maeckel for developing the TMM simulation code and device-characterization set-ups. The research leading to these results has received funding from Fundació Privada Cellex and the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ENERGY.2012.10.2.1) under grant agreement 308997. The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the ‘Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER) through grant MAT2014-56210-R. This work was also supported by AGAUR under the SGR grant (2014SGR1548). N.C. acknowledges support from Marie Curie Actions FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF (project no. 622358). G.K. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the ‘Severo Ochoa’ Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0522).

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Author notes

  1. María Bernechea and Nichole Cates: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Castelldefels (Barcelona), 08860, Spain

    María Bernechea, Nichole Cates, Guillem Xercavins, David So, Alexandros Stavrinadis & Gerasimos Konstantatos

  2. ICREA–Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona, 08010, Spain

    Gerasimos Konstantatos

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  1. María Bernechea
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Contributions

M.B. conceived, synthesized and characterized the material, designed experiments and co-wrote the manuscript. N.C. fabricated and characterized the devices, ran and analysed TMM simulations, designed experiments and co-wrote the manuscript. G.X. and D.S. fabricated and characterized the devices. A.S. took the FIB-SEM image. G.K. designed experiments, supervised the work, directed the study and co-wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results, and have read and agreed to the publication of this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerasimos Konstantatos.

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Competing interests

G.K., N.C. and M.B. have filed a provisional patent application with reference number EP15176300 on AgBiS2 nanocrystal-based solar cells.

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Bernechea, M., Cates, N., Xercavins, G. et al. Solution-processed solar cells based on environmentally friendly AgBiS2 nanocrystals. Nature Photon 10, 521–525 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.108

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