Cargando…
In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells
CdTe thin-film solar cells are now the main industrially established alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics. These cells remain reliant on the so-called chloride activation step in order to achieve high conversion efficiencies. Here, by comparison of effective and ineffective chloride treatments...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5078995/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27775037 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13231 |
_version_ | 1782462493250027520 |
---|---|
author | Major, J. D. Al Turkestani, M. Bowen, L. Brossard, M. Li, C. Lagoudakis, P. Pennycook, S. J. Phillips, L. J. Treharne, R. E. Durose, K. |
author_facet | Major, J. D. Al Turkestani, M. Bowen, L. Brossard, M. Li, C. Lagoudakis, P. Pennycook, S. J. Phillips, L. J. Treharne, R. E. Durose, K. |
author_sort | Major, J. D. |
collection | PubMed |
description | CdTe thin-film solar cells are now the main industrially established alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics. These cells remain reliant on the so-called chloride activation step in order to achieve high conversion efficiencies. Here, by comparison of effective and ineffective chloride treatments, we show the main role of the chloride process to be the modification of grain boundaries through chlorine accumulation, which leads an increase in the carrier lifetime. It is also demonstrated that while improvements in fill factor and short circuit current may be achieved through use of the ineffective chlorides, or indeed simple air annealing, voltage improvement is linked directly to chlorine incorporation at the grain boundaries. This suggests that focus on improved or more controlled grain boundary treatments may provide a route to achieving higher cell voltages and thus efficiencies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5078995 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50789952016-11-02 In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells Major, J. D. Al Turkestani, M. Bowen, L. Brossard, M. Li, C. Lagoudakis, P. Pennycook, S. J. Phillips, L. J. Treharne, R. E. Durose, K. Nat Commun Article CdTe thin-film solar cells are now the main industrially established alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics. These cells remain reliant on the so-called chloride activation step in order to achieve high conversion efficiencies. Here, by comparison of effective and ineffective chloride treatments, we show the main role of the chloride process to be the modification of grain boundaries through chlorine accumulation, which leads an increase in the carrier lifetime. It is also demonstrated that while improvements in fill factor and short circuit current may be achieved through use of the ineffective chlorides, or indeed simple air annealing, voltage improvement is linked directly to chlorine incorporation at the grain boundaries. This suggests that focus on improved or more controlled grain boundary treatments may provide a route to achieving higher cell voltages and thus efficiencies. Nature Publishing Group 2016-10-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5078995/ /pubmed/27775037 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13231 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Major, J. D. Al Turkestani, M. Bowen, L. Brossard, M. Li, C. Lagoudakis, P. Pennycook, S. J. Phillips, L. J. Treharne, R. E. Durose, K. In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells |
title | In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells |
title_full | In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells |
title_fullStr | In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells |
title_full_unstemmed | In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells |
title_short | In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells |
title_sort | in-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film cdte solar cells |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5078995/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27775037 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13231 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT majorjd indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT alturkestanim indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT bowenl indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT brossardm indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT lic indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT lagoudakisp indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT pennycooksj indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT phillipslj indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT treharnere indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells AT durosek indepthanalysisofchloridetreatmentsforthinfilmcdtesolarcells |