Journal
MATERIALS
Volume 13, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ma13061471
Keywords
sustainable energy; chalcogenide solar cells; kesterite; stannite; iron chalcogenide
Categories
Funding
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement [798271]
- Estonian Ministry of Education and Research [IUT19-28]
- European Regional Development Fund [TK141]
- Royal Society University Research Fellowship [UF/40372]
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK) under the Centre for Doctoral Training in Plastic Electronics [EP/L016702/1]
- Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) through grant Dipartimenti di Eccellenza-2017 Materials For Energy
- Marie Curie Actions (MSCA) [798271] Funding Source: Marie Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Photovoltaics is a promising technology to produce sustainable energy, thanks to the high amount of energy emitted by the sun. One way of having solar cells with low production costs is to apply thin-film technology and with earth-abundant raw materials. A keen interest is arising in kesterite compounds, which are chalcogenides composed of abundant and non-toxic elements. They have already achieved excellent performance at the laboratory level. Here, we report the synthesis and characterization of mixed chalcogenides based on copper, zinc, iron, and tin. Solutions have been studied with different zinc and iron ratios. The distortion of the elementary cell of kesterite increases with the addition of iron until a phase transition to stannite occurs. The process of synthesis and deposition proposed herein is cheap and straightforward, based on the sol-gel technique. These thin films are particularly attractive for use in cheap and easily processable solar cells. The synthesized layers have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis absorption, and Raman, X-ray photoelectron, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements.
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