DGIST’s research team promotes the environmentally friendly efficiency of solar cells using rapid temperature control
Research led by Dae-Hwan Kim and Kee-Jeong Yang of DGIST, in collaboration with Junho Kim of Incheon National University, has developed a technique to improve the efficiency of antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) solar cells. The method involves increasing the heating rate during thermal processing of materials, producing more uniformly aligned crystals and promoting efficient charge transport.
Antimony selenide is composed of antimony and selenium, making it an environmentally safe choice for solar cell production. Traditional devices using this material face efficiency limitations due to defects and uneven crystal orientation, which limit the movement of electrons and holes.
The team found that faster thermal processing supports orderly crystal growth and reduces defects. Analytical methods, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), access spectroscopy and STEM-EDS, confirmed that gradual increases in temperature result in defective, randomly oriented crystals. In contrast, rapid heating produces evenly grown crystals, allowing smoother electron flow.
Kee-Jeong Yang announced: “This study provides a clue to addressing one of the key limitations of antimony selenide solar cells, namely the issues of crystal orientation and structural defects. By simply controlling the crystal growth rate early in the manufacturing process, we can maximize the material’s potential. This is expected to greatly contribute to future commercialization and development of large surface area modules. “
The study was conducted with Jaebaek Lee and Bashiru Kadiri-English as co-first authors. The work received support from several Korean government programs and was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, with selection as Inside Front Cover.
Research report:Effect of crystal growth rate on crystal direction, defect formation and photovoltaic performance of Sb2Se3 thin film solar cells
