Issue 19, 2019

Water-resistant AgBiS2 colloidal nanocrystal solids for eco-friendly thin film photovoltaics

Abstract

Lead-free, water-resistant photovoltaic absorbers are of significant interest for use in environment-friendly and water-stable thin film solar cells. However, there are no reports on the water-resistance characteristics of such photoactive materials. Here, we demonstrate that silver bismuth sulfide (AgBiS2) nanocrystal solids exhibit inherent water resistance and can be employed as effective photovoltaic absorbers in all-solid-state thin film solar cells that show outstanding air and moisture stabilities under ambient conditions. The results of X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses show that there is no change in the chemical composition and crystal structure of the AgBiS2 nanocrystal solids after a water treatment. Based on these results, AgBiS2 nanocrystal solar cells are fabricated. These devices also do not show any drop in performance after a water treatment, confirming that the AgBiS2 nanocrystal solids are indeed highly water-resistant. In contrast, lead sulfide (PbS) colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells show significant decrease in performance after a similar water treatment. Using XPS analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we confirm that the iodine removal and the surface hydroxylation of the water-treated PbS CQD solids are the primary reasons for the observed decrease in the device performance of the CQD solar cells.

Graphical abstract: Water-resistant AgBiS2 colloidal nanocrystal solids for eco-friendly thin film photovoltaics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Feb 2019
Accepted
30 Apr 2019
First published
01 May 2019

Nanoscale, 2019,11, 9633-9640

Water-resistant AgBiS2 colloidal nanocrystal solids for eco-friendly thin film photovoltaics

J. T. Oh, S. Y. Bae, S. R. Ha, H. Cho, S. J. Lim, D. W. Boukhvalov, Y. Kim and H. Choi, Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 9633 DOI: 10.1039/C9NR01192G

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