INDUSTRY News
Korean researchers develop eco- friendly fabrication of solar cells
Clean, sustainable energy solutions are essential to meet our ever-increasing energy demands, and high-effi ciency solar cells are promising candidates to reduce carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. More recently, solution-processed copper indium gallium sulfur diselenide solar cells (CIGSSe) have generated signifi cant interest owing to their excellent photovoltaic properties, such as high absorption of visible light, stability and tunable bandgap. However, large-scale, practical applications are limited by two main challenges: First, solution-based CIGSSe fabrication yields very low power-conversion effi ciency and often uses solvents that are not environmentally friendly. Second, to achieve higher power conversion effi ciency, fabrication methods rely on expensive vacuum environment that leads to substantial material loss. To this end, a team of researchers at the Incheon National University in Korea have developed a low-cost and eco-friendly fabrication method of high-effi ciency CIGSSe solar cells. They used aqueous spray deposition in an air environment and developed a CIGSSe solar cell with power conversion effi ciency (PCE) of over 17%. This compares to conventional solution-based fabrication processes that rely on environmentally- hazardous cadmium-based buff ers for the optimisation of thin-fi lm solar cells.
The steps involved in the economical eco-friendly fabrication of high-efficiency chalcopyrite solar cells, as developed by the team of researchers at the Incheon National University in Korea
In their novel technique, the university team used indium sulfi de-based buff er that is a cadmium free, eco-friendly alternative. They also investigated the alloying eff ects of zirconium on indium sulfi de buff ers, and discovered that zirconium alloying increases the electron concentration in the buff er. The method “passivates” or reduces defect states in the CIGSSe absorber, optimising the charge transfer between various interfaces, leading to enhanced PCE. Further, the researchers achieved even more defect passivation and higher PCE, of over 17%, by alloying the CIGSSe absorber with potassium. The fabricated cell has an optimum bandgap for high- effi ciency applications such as a tandem or a bottom cell.
This new technique is cost-eff ective and easily scaleable, since it doesn’t require a vacuum environment. “We carried out spray deposition in an air environment without using any high vacuum facility, which signifi cantly reduces fabrication cost and thus makes the fabrication technique more practical and competitive in the industry sector,” said Professor JunHo Kim from Global Energy Research Center for Carbon Neutrality, who led the university team. This development improves the performance and fabrication of CIGSSe solar cells, potentially widening their application to integrated photovoltaic devices and vehicle-integrated photo- voltaic devices, as well as energy sources for IoT devices.
6 March 2023 | Automation
automationmagazine.co.uk
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