Litcius/Paper detail

Large Area and High‐Efficiency MXene–Silicon Solar Cells by Organic Enhanced Dispersity and Work Function

Cuili Zhang, Bingbing Chen, Xuning Zhang, Jun Yan, Jingwei Chen, Jingwei Chen, Qing Gao, Xin Zhou, Jianxin Guo, Feng Li, Jianming Wang, Dengyuan Song, Shufang Wang, Jianhui Chen, Jianhui Chen

2022Solar RRL15 citationsDOI

Abstract

2D transition metal carbon/nitrides (MXenes) have lately attracted increased attention in photovoltaic (PV) because of their good optical and electrical properties. MXenes–silicon solar cells as a novel PV device are considered to be a low‐cost strategy for boosting Si‐based device development. Nevertheless, power conversion efficiency (PCE) and large area preparation are limited in their future applications. Here, the solubilization of Ti 2 CT x (T = O, F, OH) MXene multilayer nanosheets is reported and thus the ability of scaled coating of Ti 2 CT x MXene thin films using an organic Nafion polymer solution is enhanced. It is demonstrated that an effect of termination by Nafion to Ti 2 CT x MXene groups (MXene:Nafion) dramatically enhanced the work function of the Ti 2 CT x MXene from 3.96 to 5.17 eV. Due to the excellent passivation ability of the organic Nafion species, the MXene:Nafion increases the effective carrier lifetime of silicon wafers to 2.52 ms compared with unpassivated control (0.03 ms). These results finally contribute to the high PCE of 14.21% of MXene:Nafion–Si solar cell with a large area of 7.29 cm 2 . This work proposes a large area MXene:Nafion–Si heterojunction solar cell with high performance and low cost, which points to the great promise of such a device for future application.

Topics & Concepts

Materials scienceMXenesNafionPassivationWork functionEnergy conversion efficiencyPolymer solar cellWaferNanotechnologyPhotovoltaic systemChemical engineeringOptoelectronicsElectrodeChemistryElectrochemistryLayer (electronics)Electrical engineeringPhysical chemistryEngineeringMXene and MAX Phase MaterialsGraphene research and applications2D Materials and Applications