Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Films with Branched Nanorod Architectures Fabricated by Economic and Environmentally Friendly Pulse-Reverse Electrodeposition Route
2018 (English)In: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, E-ISSN 2168-0485, Vol. 6, no 11, p. 13787-13796Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) materials are one of the most promising solar cell technologies owing to their large absorption coefficient and tunable direct bandgap, and they have gained considerable commercial maturity. The study herein puts forward the preparation of nanostructured CIGS films containing branched nanorod architectures, which is reported for the first time. The process employs an economic pulse-reverse electrodeposition technique by utilizing the fundamentals of electro-reduction and oxidation to fabricate nanostructured CIGS and completely avoids conventional energy-intensive high-temperature annealing/selenization step. Comprehensive characterization of nanoarchitectured films reveals the stoichiometric composition and chalcopyrite structure with dominant (112) orientation. Nanostructured CIGS exhibits excellent photoactivity with a photocurrent density of 4.31 mA/cm2 at -0.13 V vs RHE in a liquid junction, which is highest for a bare CIGS film and is attributable to its inherent high interface area and better charge transport properties compared to planar films. The ability to produce such efficient nanostructures using an economic, scalable, sustainable, and eco-friendly approach can considerably reduce fabrication costs compared with existing high-temperature bulk material preparation methods. © 2018 American Chemical Society.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society , 2018. Vol. 6, no 11, p. 13787-13796
Keywords [en]
Copper indium gallium selenide, Nanostructured films, Photoelectrochemical cells, Pulse-reverse electrodeposition, Solar cells, Copper compounds, Electrodeposition, Electrodes, Fabrication, Gallium compounds, Indium compounds, Layered semiconductors, Nanorods, Nanostructured materials, Chalcopyrite structures, Gallium selenides, High-temperature annealing, Large absorption coefficient, Solar cell technology, Stoichiometric compositions, Film preparation
National Category
Manufacturing, Surface and Joining Technology
Research subject
ENGINEERING, Manufacturing and materials engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-13068DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b01840ISI: 000449577200021Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85054617835OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-13068DiVA, id: diva2:1259405
Note
Funders: U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS) - U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC36-08GO28308]; U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS) - Government of India, through the Department of Science and Technology [IUSSTF/JCERDC-SERIIUS/2012 ]
2018-10-292018-10-292025-09-30Bibliographically approved