Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Films with Branched Nanorod Architectures Fabricated by Economic and Environmentally Friendly Pulse-Reverse Electrodeposition Route

Mandati, Sreekanth and Dey, Suhash Ranjan and Joshi, Shrikant V and Bulusu, Sarada V (2018) Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Films with Branched Nanorod Architectures Fabricated by Economic and Environmentally Friendly Pulse-Reverse Electrodeposition Route. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 6 (11). pp. 13787-13796. ISSN 2168-0485

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 (CIGS) materials are one of the most promising solar cell technologies owing to their large absorption coefficient and tunable direct bandgap, and they have gained considerable commercial maturity. The study herein puts forward the preparation of nanostructured GIGS films containing branched nanorod architectures, which is reported for the first time. The process employs an economic pulse-reverse electrodeposition technique by utilizing the fundamentals of electro-reduction and oxidation to fabricate nanostructured GIGS and completely avoids conventional energy-intensive high-temperature annealing/selenization step. Comprehensive characterization of nanoarchitectured films reveals the stoichiometric composition and chalcopyrite structure with dominant (112) orientation. Nanostructured CIGS exhibits excellent photoactivity with a photocurrent density of 4.31 mA/cm(2) at -0.13 V vs RHE in a liquid junction, which is highest for a bare CIGS film and is attributable to its inherent high interface area and better charge transport properties compared to planar films. The ability to produce such efficient nanostructures using an economic, scalable, sustainable, and eco-friendly approach can considerably reduce fabrication costs compared with existing high-temperature bulk material preparation methods.

[error in script]

IITH Creators: