Title:    Solution-Processed Cd-Substituted CZTS Nanocrystals for Sensitized Liquid Junction Solar Cells - data

Citation
Rondiya SA, Jadhav YA, Živković A, et al.  (2021). Solution-Processed Cd-Substituted CZTS Nanocrystals for Sensitized Liquid Junction Solar Cells - data. Cardiff University. https://doi.org/10.17035/d.2021.0139534729

Dataset Details

Publisher: Cardiff University

Date (year) of data becoming publicly available: 2021

Coverage start date: 01/06/2020

Coverage end date: 12/08/2021

Data format: xlsx

Estimated total storage size of dataset: Less than 100 megabytes

DOI : 10.17035/d.2021.0139534729

DOI URL: http://doi.org/10.17035/d.2021.0139534729

Related URL: https://sites.google.com/view/nelsondzade/research

Description

The Earth-abundant kesterite Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) exhibits outstanding structural, optical, and electronic properties for a wide range of optoelectronic applications. However, the efficiency of CZTS thin-film solar cells is limited due to a range of factors, including electronic disorder, secondary phases, and the presence of anti-site defects, which is a key factor limiting the V_oc. The complete substitution of Zn lattice sites in CZTS nanocrystals (NCs) with Cd atoms offers a promising approach to overcome several of these intrinsic limitations. Herein, we investigate the effects of substitution of Cd²⁺ into Zn²⁺ lattice sites in CZTS NCs through a facile solution-based method. The structural, morphological, optoelectronic, and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the NCs synthesized have been systematically characterized using various experimental techniques, and the results are corroborated by first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The successful substitution of Zn by Cd is demonstrated to induce a structural transformation from the kesterite phase to the stannite phase, which results in the bandgap reducing from 1.51 eV (kesterite) to 1.1 eV (stannite), which is closer to the optimum bandgap value for outdoor photovoltaic applications. Furthermore, the PCE of the novel Cd-substituted liquid junction solar cell underwent a four-fold increase, reaching 1.1%. These results highlight the importance of substitutional doping strategies in optimizing existing CZTS-based materials to achieve improved device characteristics.

Reserach results based upon these data are published at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.161575