Flexible and high-efficiency Sb2S3/solid carrier solar cell at low light intensity

Abstract

Producing green and efficient energy sources is a major challenge. As a consequence, the use of photovoltaic devices for conversion of light into electricity is growing worldwide. A lot of effort had been invested to create high-efficient solar cells, but their durability, stability, flexibility and efficiency at low light intensities are still unexplored. Here, we built a flexible solar cell made of p-doped, amorphized a-undoped and n-doped Sb2S3 solid carrier loaded with electrolyte. Indium tin oxide glass was the working electrode, and aluminium was the counter electrode. Every (p–a–n) flexible Sb2S3/solid carrier layers were obtained using a cheap casting/solvent evaporation technique, from a blend consisted of chitosan, polyethylene glycol and electrolyte containing 0.5 M potassium iodide and 0.05 M iodine, and corresponding synthesized amorphized a-undoped and p and n-doped Sb2S3 semiconductor. Results show that flexible Sb2S3 solar cell possesses good stability and efficiency of about 10% at 5% sun. Overall, our findings demonstrate for the first time that flexible solar cell can be made and used for low light intensity applications. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.