• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2012

Copper zinc tin sulfide ($Cu_2ZnSnS_4$, CZTS) is a very promising material as a low cost absorber alternative to other chalcopyrite-type semiconductors based on Ga or In because of the abundant and economical elements. In addition, CZTS has a band-gap energy of 1.4~1.5eV and large absorption coefficient over ${\sim}10^4cm^{-1}$, which is similar to those of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$(CIGS) regarded as one of the most successful absorber materials for high efficient solar cell. Most previous works on the fabrication of CZTS thin films were based on the vacuum deposition such as thermal evaporation and RF magnetron sputtering. Although the vacuum deposition has been widely adopted, it is quite expensive and complicated. In this regard, the solution processes such as sol-gel method, nanocrystal dispersion and hybrid slurry method have been developed for easy and cost-effective fabrication of CZTS film. Among these methods, the hybrid slurry method is favorable to make high crystalline and dense absorber layer. However, this method has the demerit using the toxic and explosive hydrazine solvent, which has severe limitation for common use. With these considerations, it is highly desirable to develop a robust, easily scalable and relatively safe solution-based process for the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer with a thickness of 1.5~2.0 ${\mu}m$ and micrometer-scaled grains using two different non-vacuum approaches. The first solution-processing approach includes air-stable non-toxic solvent-based inks in which the commercially available precursor nanoparticles are dispersed in ethanol. Our readily achievable air-stable precursor ink, without the involvement of complex particle synthesis, high toxic solvents, or organic additives, facilitates a convenient method to fabricate a high quality CZTS absorber layer with uniform surface composition and across the film depth when annealed at $530^{\circ}C$. The conversion efficiency and fill factor for the non-toxic ink based solar cells are 5.14% and 52.8%, respectively. The other method is based on the nanocrystal dispersions that are a key ingredient in the deposition of thermally annealed absorber layers. We report a facile synthetic method to produce phase-pure CZTS nanocrystals capped with less toxic and more easily removable ligands. The resulting CZTS nanoparticle dispersion enables us to fabricate uniform, crack-free absorber layer onto Mo-coated soda-lime glass at $500^{\circ}C$, which exhibits a robust and reproducible photovoltaic response. Our simple and less-toxic approach for the fabrication of CZTS layer, reported here, will be the first step in realizing the low-cost solution-processed CZTS solar cell with high efficiency.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.694-701
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• 2013

A new copolymer named T-TI24T (poly((5,5-(2-butyl-5,6-bisdecyloxy-4,7-di-thiophen-2-yl-isoindole-1,3-dione))- alt-(2,5-thiophene))) based on phthalimide derivative and thiophene is synthesized by the Stille-coupling reaction. The polymer shows relatively high number average molecular weight of 86500 g/mol with good solubility in common organic solvents such as chloroform, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, and toluene and is thermally stable up to $380^{\circ}C$. Besides, it possesses a relatively low highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level of -5.33 eV, promising the high open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) for photovoltaic applications. Active layer solution of polymer T-TI24T-as a donor and (6)-1-(3-(methoxycarbonyl)- {5}-1-phenyl[5,6]-fullerene (PCBM)-as an acceptor in different weight ratios is applied to fabricate the polymer solar cell devices. The ratio of polymer/PCBM affects the solar cell efficiency and the best performance exhibits in the device with polymer/PCBM = 1:3 (w/w), which shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.199% and a $V_{oc}$ of 0.99 V, respectively. Even though the device shows the very low PCE, the $V_{oc}$ is higher than that of well known bulk heterojunction type solar cell based on P3HT:PC61BM (c.a. 0.5 V).

• New Physics: Sae Mulli
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• v.68 no.11
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• pp.1208-1214
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• 2018

The one-step spin coating method is reported as an excellent thin film process because it can be easily used to fabricate high-quality methyl-ammonium lead tri-iodide ($MAPbI_3$) perovskite layers. One of the important things in the one-step spin coating method towards obtaining high-quality $MAPbI_3$ layers is the anti-solvent (AS) engineering, which consists of an one-step deposition of the $MAPbI_3$ film and dripping of the AS. The properties of the $MAPbI_3$ layer were found to be strongly influenced by the amount, dispensing speed, and spraying time of the AS solution. The $MAPbI_3$ solution was prepared by dissolving lead iodide and methyl-ammonium iodide in N,N-dimethylformamide and adding N,N-dimethyl sulfoxide. Diethyl ether (DE) was used for the AS solution. The results indicate that a $MAPbI_3$ layer appropriately sprayed with DE is beneficial for improving film quality and device efficiency because nucleation of $MAPbI_3$ layer is affected by the characteristics of DE, which affect the film's crystallinity, density, and surface morphology. The $MAPbI_3$ layer, which was optimized by using 0.7 mL of DE, a 3.03 mL/sec dispensing speed, and a 7 second time to spray after spinning showed the best efficiency of 13.74%, which was reproducible.