Bruna F Gonçalves1,2,3, Alec P LaGrow1, Sergey Pyrlin2, Bryan Owens-Baird4,5, Gabriela Botelho3, Luis S A Marques2, Marta M D Ramos2, Kirill Kovnir4,5, Senentxu Lanceros-Mendez2,6,7, Yury V Kolen'ko1. 1. International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal. 2. Center of Physics, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. 3. Center of Chemistry, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. 4. Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. 5. Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, IA 50011, USA. 6. BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, UPV/EHU Science Park, 48940 Leioa, Spain. 7. Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48009 Bilbao, Spain.
Abstract
During the last few decades, the interest over chalcopyrite and related photovoltaics has been growing due the outstanding structural and electrical properties of the thin-film Cu(In,Ga)Se2 photoabsorber. More recently, thin film deposition through solution processing has gained increasing attention from the industry, due to the potential low-cost and high-throughput production. To this end, the elimination of the selenization procedure in the synthesis of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 nanoparticles with following dispersion into ink formulations for printing/coating deposition processes are of high relevance. However, most of the reported syntheses procedures give access to tetragonal chalcopyrite Cu(In,Ga)Se2 nanoparticles, whereas methods to obtain other structures are scarce. Herein, we report a large-scale synthesis of high-quality Cu(In,Ga)Se2 nanoparticles with wurtzite hexagonal structure, with sizes of 10-70 nm, wide absorption in visible to near-infrared regions, and [Cu]/[In + Ga] ≈ 0.8 and [Ga]/[Ga + In] ≈ 0.3 metal ratios. The inclusion of the synthesized NPs into a water-based ink formulation for screen printing deposition results in thin films with homogenous thickness of ≈4.5 µm, paving the way towards environmentally friendly roll-to-roll production of photovoltaic systems.
During the last few decades, the interest over n class="Chemical">chalcopyrite and related photovoltaics has been growing due the outstanding structural and electrical properties of the thin-film Cu(In,Ga)Se2 photoabsorber. More recently, thin film deposition through solution processing has gained increasing attention from the industry, due to the potential low-cost and high-throughput production. To this end, the elimination of the selenization procedure in the synthesis of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 nanoparticles with following dispersion into ink formulations for printing/coating deposition processes are of high relevance. However, most of the reported syntheses procedures give access to tetragonal chalcopyriteCu(In,Ga)Se2 nanoparticles, whereas methods to obtain other structures are scarce. Herein, we report a large-scale synthesis of high-quality Cu(In,Ga)Se2 nanoparticles with wurtzite hexagonal structure, with sizes of 10-70 nm, wide absorption in visible to near-infrared regions, and [Cu]/[In + Ga] ≈ 0.8 and [Ga]/[Ga + In] ≈ 0.3 metal ratios. The inclusion of the synthesized NPs into a water-based ink formulation for screen printing deposition results in thin films with homogenous thickness of ≈4.5 µm, paving the way towards environmentally friendly roll-to-roll production of photovoltaic systems.
Authors: Patrick R Brown; Donghun Kim; Richard R Lunt; Ni Zhao; Moungi G Bawendi; Jeffrey C Grossman; Vladimir Bulović Journal: ACS Nano Date: 2014-06-03 Impact factor: 15.881
Authors: M D Heinemann; R Mainz; F Österle; H Rodriguez-Alvarez; D Greiner; C A Kaufmann; T Unold Journal: Sci Rep Date: 2017-04-04 Impact factor: 4.379