Development of antimony sulfide-selenide Sb2(S, Se)3-based solar cells

Antimony sulfide-selenide Sb-2(S, Se) 3, including Sb2S3 and Sb2Se3, can be regarded as binary metal chalcogenides semiconductors since Sb2S3 and Sb2Se3 are isomorphous. They possess abundant elemental storage, nontoxicity, good stability with regard to moisture at elevated temperatures and suitable physical parameters for light absorption materials in solar cells. To date, quite a few attempts have been conducted in the materials synthesis, photovoltaic property investigation and device fabrication. Benefiting from previous investigation in thin film solar cells and new generation nanostructured solar cells, this class of materials has been applied in either sensitized-architecture or planar heterojunction solar cells. Decent power conversion efficiencies from 5% to 7.5% have been achieved. Apparently, further improvement on the efficiency is required for future practical applications. To give an overview of this research field, this paper displays some typical researches regarding the methodologies toward the antimony sulfide-selenide synthesis, development of interfacial materials and device fabrications, during which we highlight some critical findings that promote the efficiency enhancement. Finally, this paper proposes some outstanding issue regarding fundamental understanding of the materials, some viewpoints for the efficiency improvement and their future challenges in solar cell applications. (C) 2017 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.