4.9% Efficient Sb 2 S 3 Solar Cells from Semitransparent Absorbers with Fluorene-Based Thiophene-Terminated Hole Conductors

• Published in: ACS applied energy materials Vol. 6; no. 7; pp. 3822 - 3833
• Main Authors: Mandati, Sreekanth, Juneja, Nimish, Katerski, Atanas, Jegorovė, Aistė, Grzibovskis, Raitis, Vembris, Aivars, Dedova, Tatjana, Spalatu, Nicolae, Magomedov, Artiom, Karazhanov, Smagul, Getautis, Vytautas, Krunks, Malle, Oja Acik, Ilona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 10.04.2023
• ISSN: 2574-0962; 2574-0962
• DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.2c04097

Fluorene-based hole transport materials (HTMs) with terminating thiophene units are explored, for the first time, for antimony sulfide (Sb S ) solar cells. These HTMs possess largely simplified synthesis processes and high yields compared to the conventional expensive hole conductors making them reasonably economical. The thiophene unit-linked HTMs have been successfully demonstrated in ultrasonic spray-deposited Sb S solar cells resulting in efficiencies in the range of 4.7-4.9% with an average visible transmittance (AVT) of 30-33% (400-800 nm) for the cell stack without metal contact, while the cells fabricated using conventional P3HT have yielded an efficiency of 4.7% with an AVT of 26%. The study puts forward cost-effective and transparent HTMs that avoid a post-coating activation at elevated temperatures like P3HT, devoid of parasitic absorption losses in the visible region and are demonstrated to be well aligned for the band edges of Sb S thereby ascertaining their suitability for Sb S solar cells and are potential candidates for semitransparent applications.