Thin film solar cells have reached commercial maturity and extraordinarily high efficiency that make them competitive even with the cheaper Chinese crystalline silicon modules. However, some issues (connected with presence of toxic and/or rare elements) are still limiting their market diffusion. For this reason new thin film materials, such as Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 or SnS, have been introduced so that expensive In and Te, and toxic elements Se and Cd, are substituted, respectively, in CuInGaSe 2 and CdTe. To overcome the abundance limitation of Te and In, in recent times new thin film materials, such as Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 or SnS, have been investigated. In this paper we analyze the limitations of SnS deposition in terms of reproducibility and reliability. SnS deposited by thermal evaporation is analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The raw material is also analyzed and a different composition is observed according to the different number of evaporation (runs). The sulfur loss represents one of the major challenges of SnS solar cell technology.
SnS thin film solar cells: Perspectives and limitations / Di Mare, S.; Menossi, D.; Salavei, A.; Artegiani, E.; Piccinelli, F.; Kumar, A.; Mariotto, G.; Romeo, A.. - In: COATINGS. - ISSN 2079-6412. - 7:2(2017), pp. 34.34-34.45. [10.3390/coatings7020034]
SnS thin film solar cells: Perspectives and limitations
Kumar A.;
2017-01-01
Abstract
Thin film solar cells have reached commercial maturity and extraordinarily high efficiency that make them competitive even with the cheaper Chinese crystalline silicon modules. However, some issues (connected with presence of toxic and/or rare elements) are still limiting their market diffusion. For this reason new thin film materials, such as Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 or SnS, have been introduced so that expensive In and Te, and toxic elements Se and Cd, are substituted, respectively, in CuInGaSe 2 and CdTe. To overcome the abundance limitation of Te and In, in recent times new thin film materials, such as Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 or SnS, have been investigated. In this paper we analyze the limitations of SnS deposition in terms of reproducibility and reliability. SnS deposited by thermal evaporation is analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The raw material is also analyzed and a different composition is observed according to the different number of evaporation (runs). The sulfur loss represents one of the major challenges of SnS solar cell technology.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
