Issue 22, 2017

Nanostructural and photo-electrochemical properties of solution spin-coated Cu2ZnSnS4–TiO2 nanorod forest films with an improved photovoltaic performance

Abstract

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), other than in standard p–n junction device architecture, can be employed as a broad light absorber upon coating onto a wide bandgap electron conducting TiO2 film. Earlier CZTS sensitized TiO2 films have yielded low photoconversion efficiency and Voc. In this work, a water–ethanol solution spin coating approach has been applied to directly deposit CZTS nanocrystallites on rutile TiO2 nanorods grown on an FTO substrate (TNR) for evaluation in a sensitized solar cell configuration. The FTO@TNR@CZTS photoanode following controlled annealing is shown to exhibit improved photovoltaic properties. Focused-ion beam cross-sections of CZTS nanocoating onto TiO2 nanorod forest films have revealed nanoscale morphological details and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy helped identify TiO2 nanorod film growth characteristics for a reduced charge recombination. The band alignment of CZTS and TiO2 has been determined by XPS helping to explain the origin of Voc deficit. An all-solid state device featuring spiro OMeTAD as HTM and CdS as a buffer layer has been designed with 2% efficiency.

Graphical abstract: Nanostructural and photo-electrochemical properties of solution spin-coated Cu2ZnSnS4–TiO2 nanorod forest films with an improved photovoltaic performance

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Feb 2017
Accepted
08 May 2017
First published
10 May 2017

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 7650-7665

Nanostructural and photo-electrochemical properties of solution spin-coated Cu2ZnSnS4–TiO2 nanorod forest films with an improved photovoltaic performance

Z. Wang, R. Gauvin and G. P. Demopoulos, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 7650 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR01422H

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