Precursor Engineering of Solution-Processed Sb₂ S₃ Solar Cells

Antimony-based chalcogenides have emerged as promising candidates for next-generation thin film photovoltaics. Particularly, binary Sb₂ S₃ thin films have exhibited great potential for optoelectronic applications, due to the facile and low-cost fabrication, simple composition, decent charge transport and superior stability. However, most of the reported efficient Sb₂ S₃ solar cells are realized based on chemical bath deposition and hydrothermal methods, which require large amount of solution and are normally very time-consuming. In this work, Ag ions are introduced within the Sb₂ S₃ sol-gel precursors, and effectively modulated the crystallization and charge transport properties of Sb₂ S₃ . The crystallinity of the Sb₂ S₃ crystal grains are enhanced and the charge carrier mobility is increased, which resulted improved charge collection efficiency and reduced charge recombination losses, reflected by the greatly improved fill factor and open-circuit voltage of the Ag incorporated Sb₂ S₃ solar cells. The champion devices reached a record high power conversion efficiency of 7.73% (with antireflection coating), which is comparable with the best photovoltaic performance of Sb₂ S₃ solar cells achieved based on chemical bath deposition and hydrothermal techniques, and pave the great avenue for next-generation solution-processed photovoltaics.