Journal
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
Volume 30, Issue 17, Pages 6116-6123Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b02556
Keywords
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [1511737, ECCS-1344745]
- Duke University Energy Initiative Research Seed Fund
- National Science Foundation as part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) [ECCS-1542015]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys [1511737] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Div Of Electrical, Commun & Cyber Sys
- Directorate For Engineering [1344745] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Cu2BaSn(S,Se)(4) (CBTSSe) has recently gained substantial attention as an alternative absorber material for photovoltaic (PV) and photoelectrochemical (PEC) applications due to the abundance of the constituent elements, a large absorption coefficient, tunable band gap ranging from 1.5 to 2 eV, and reduced tendency for antisite disorder relative to Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)(4). In this study, as an alternative to more expensive vacuum-based film-deposition processes, we report a low-toxicity solution-based process for the fabrication of high quality CBTSSe absorber layers with micrometer-scale film thickness and grain size. The facile process involves spin-coating an environmentally benign solution of highly soluble, inexpensive, and commercially available precursors, Ba(NO3)(2), Cu(CO2CH3)(2), and SnI2, followed by sequential sulfurization/selenization annealing. A high-temperature prebaking step under sulfur vapor is needed for each film layer to avoid forming the difficult-to-remove impurity phase, Ba(SO4), when starting from the soluble Ba(NO3)(2) reagent. The solution-based CBTSSe films have been employed in a Pt/TiO2/CdS/CBTSSe photocathode structure (e.g., for water splitting), exhibiting an similar to 10 mA/cm(2) current density at 0 V-RHE, comparable to that of vacuum-deposited CBTSSe PEC devices. Our approach for the fabrication of CBTSSe absorbers represents a first step in achieving low-cost and large-scale solution-processed solar devices based on this material.
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