Vacuum-Free and Highly Dense Nanoparticle Based Low-Band-Gap CuInSe2 Thin-Films Manufactured by Face-to-Face Annealing with Application of Uniaxial Mechanical Pressure

Schuster M, Stapf D, Osterrieder T, Barthel V, Wellmann P (2019)


Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Book Volume: 9

Pages Range: 1-16

Article Number: 484

URI: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/9/8/484

DOI: 10.3390/coatings9080484

Open Access Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings

Abstract

Copper indium gallium sulfo-selenide (CIGS) based solar cells show the highest conversion eciencies among all thin-film photovoltaic competition. However, the absorber material manufacturing is in most cases dependent on vacuum-technology like sputtering and evaporation, and the use of toxic and environmentally harmful substances like H2Se. In this work, the goal to fabricate dense, coarse grained CuInSe2 (CISe) thin-films with vacuum-free processing based on nanoparticle (NP) precursors was achieved. Bimetallic copper-indium, elemental selenium and binary selenide (Cu2-xSe and In2Se3) NPs were synthesized by wet-chemical methods and dispersed in nontoxic solvents. Layer-stacks from these inks were printed on molybdenum coated float-glass-substrates via doctor-blading. During the temperature treatment, a face-to-face technique and mechanically applied pressure were used to transform the precursor-stacks into dense CuInSe2 films. By combining liquid phase sintering and pressure sintering, and using a seeding layer later on, issues like high porosity, oxidation, or selenium- and indium-depletion were overcome. There was
no need for external Se atmosphere or H2Se gas, as all of the Se was directly in the precursor and could not leave the face-to-face sandwich. All thin-films were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diraction (XRD), and UV/vis spectroscopy. Dense CISe layers with a thickness of about 2–3 m and low band gap energies of 0.93–0.97 eV were formed in this work, which show potential to be used as a solar cell absorber.

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How to cite

APA:

Schuster, M., Stapf, D., Osterrieder, T., Barthel, V., & Wellmann, P. (2019). Vacuum-Free and Highly Dense Nanoparticle Based Low-Band-Gap CuInSe2 Thin-Films Manufactured by Face-to-Face Annealing with Application of Uniaxial Mechanical Pressure. Coatings, 9, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings9080484

MLA:

Schuster, Matthias, et al. "Vacuum-Free and Highly Dense Nanoparticle Based Low-Band-Gap CuInSe2 Thin-Films Manufactured by Face-to-Face Annealing with Application of Uniaxial Mechanical Pressure." Coatings 9 (2019): 1-16.

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