2 research outputs found
Thin-Film Copper Indium Gallium Selenide Solar Cell Based on Low-Temperature All-Printing Process
In
the solar cell field, development of simple, low-cost, and low-temperature
fabrication processes has become an important trend for energy-saving
and environmental issues. Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar
cells have attracted much attention due to the high absorption coefficient,
tunable band gap energy, and high efficiency. However, vacuum and
high-temperature processing in fabrication of solar cells have limited
the applications. There is a strong need to develop simple and scalable
methods. In this work, a CIGS solar cell based on all printing steps
and low-temperature annealing is developed. CIGS absorber thin film
is deposited by using dodecylamine-stabilized CIGS nanoparticle ink
followed by printing buffer layer. Silver nanowire (AgNW) ink and
sol–gel-derived ZnO precursor solution are used to prepare
a highly conductive window layer ZnO/[AgNW/ZnO] electrode with a printing
method that achieves 16 Ω/sq sheet resistance and 94% transparency.
A CIGS solar cell based on all printing processes exhibits efficiency
of 1.6% with open circuit voltage of 0.48 V, short circuit current
density of 9.7 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>, and fill factor of 0.34 for 200
nm thick CIGS film, fabricated under ambient conditions and annealed
at 250 °C
Silver Nanowires Binding with Sputtered ZnO to Fabricate Highly Conductive and Thermally Stable Transparent Electrode for Solar Cell Applications
Silver
nanowire (AgNW) film has been demonstrated as excellent and low cost
transparent electrode in organic solar cells as an alternative to
replace scarce and expensive indium tin oxide (ITO). However, the
low contact area and weak adhesion with low-lying surface as well
as junction resistance between nanowires have limited the applications
of AgNW film to thin film solar cells. To resolve this problem, we
fabricated AgNW film as transparent conductive electrode (TCE) by
binding with a thin layer of sputtered ZnO (40 nm) which not only
increased contact area with low-lying surface in thin film solar cell
but also improved conductivity by connecting AgNWs at the junction.
The TCE thus fabricated exhibited transparency and sheet resistance
of 92% and 20Ω/□, respectively. Conductive atomic force
microscopy (C-AFM) study revealed the enhancement of current collection
vertically and laterally through AgNWs after coating with ZnO thin
film. The CuInGaSe<sub>2</sub> solar cell with TCE of our AgNWÂ(ZnO)
demonstrated the maximum power conversion efficiency of 13.5% with
improved parameters in comparison to solar cell fabricated with conventional
ITO as TCE