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Nano Research 2020, 13(2): 543-550 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2648-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 12 February 2020

Improving CNT-Si solar cells by metal chloride-to-oxide transformation

Show Author's Information Huaisheng Wu1,  Xuewei Zhao1,  Yizeng Wu1,  Qinghuan Ji1,  Linxiu Dai1,  Yuanyuan Shang2,  Anyuan Cao1( )
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
School of Physical and Microelectronics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Keywords:
carbon nanotube (CNT)-Si solar cell, chloride to oxide transformation, MoO3 and WO3, inversion layer
Topics:
Carbon nanotubesChlorine compoundsCoatings Molecular biologyMolybdenum oxideSemiconductor dopingSilicon compoundsTungsten compounds
Cite this article:
Wu H, Zhao X, Wu Y, et al. Improving CNT-Si solar cells by metal chloride-to-oxide transformation. Nano Research, 2020, 13(2): 543-550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2648-5
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Transitional metal oxides (TMOs) are important functional materials in silicon-based and thin-film optoelectronics. Here, TMOs are applied in carbon nanotube (CNT)-Si solar cells by spin-coating solutions of metal chlorides that undergo favorable transformation in ambient conditions. An unconventional change in solar cell behavior is observed after coating two particular chlorides (MoCl5 and WCl6, respectively), characterized by an initial severe degradation followed by gradual recovery and then well surpassing the original performance. Detailed analysis reveals that the formation of corresponding oxides (MoO3 and WO3) enables two primary functions on both CNTs (p-type doping) and Si (inducing inversion layer), leading to significant improvement in open-circuit voltage and fill factor, with power conversion efficiencies up to 13.0% (MoO3) and 13.4% (WO3). Further combining with other chlorides to increase the short-circuit current, ultimate cells efficiencies achieve >16% with over 90% retention after 24 h, which are among the highest stable efficiencies reported for CNT-Si solar cells. The transformation of functional layers as demonstrated here has profound influence on the device characteristics, and represents a potential strategy in low-cost manufacturing of next-generation high efficiency photovoltaics.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Improving CNT-Si solar cells by metal chloride-to-oxide transformation

Show Author's information Huaisheng Wu1, Xuewei Zhao1, Yizeng Wu1, Qinghuan Ji1, Linxiu Dai1, Yuanyuan Shang2, Anyuan Cao1( )
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
School of Physical and Microelectronics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China

Abstract

Transitional metal oxides (TMOs) are important functional materials in silicon-based and thin-film optoelectronics. Here, TMOs are applied in carbon nanotube (CNT)-Si solar cells by spin-coating solutions of metal chlorides that undergo favorable transformation in ambient conditions. An unconventional change in solar cell behavior is observed after coating two particular chlorides (MoCl5 and WCl6, respectively), characterized by an initial severe degradation followed by gradual recovery and then well surpassing the original performance. Detailed analysis reveals that the formation of corresponding oxides (MoO3 and WO3) enables two primary functions on both CNTs (p-type doping) and Si (inducing inversion layer), leading to significant improvement in open-circuit voltage and fill factor, with power conversion efficiencies up to 13.0% (MoO3) and 13.4% (WO3). Further combining with other chlorides to increase the short-circuit current, ultimate cells efficiencies achieve >16% with over 90% retention after 24 h, which are among the highest stable efficiencies reported for CNT-Si solar cells. The transformation of functional layers as demonstrated here has profound influence on the device characteristics, and represents a potential strategy in low-cost manufacturing of next-generation high efficiency photovoltaics.

Keywords: carbon nanotube (CNT)-Si solar cell, chloride to oxide transformation, MoO3 and WO3, inversion layer

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 November 2019
Revised: 06 January 2020
Accepted: 08 January 2020
Published: 12 February 2020
Issue date: February 2020

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51672005). H. W. also acknowledges helpful discussions from Lei Zhang, Liusi Yang, Zhiyuan Xia and Yawei Yang.

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