Proceedings of MATSUS23 & Sustainable Technology Forum València (STECH23) (MATSUS23)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.190
Publication date: 22nd December 2022
The photovoltaic (PV) market has long been dominated by crystalline silicon-based technologies. Their success is rooted also in the laboratory, with record efficiencies ultimately approaching the theoretical limit for monocrystalline silicon [1]. Market competitors are Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 [2,3,4] (CIGS aka chalcopyrite) and CdTe [5,6,7,8] thin films. Currently, the commercial attractiveness of CIGS is curtailed by the module efficiency gap and by the supply of critical raw materials, with respect to silicon.
Overcoming the Shockley-Queisser efficiency gap requires the pursuit of strategic approaches, leaving plenty of room for research at both industrial and laboratory scale. Likewise, the availability of critical raw materials may constrain the future deployment of CIGS at GW scales needed for the ecological transition [9]. The progress on both fronts poses compelling scientific challenges.
This contribution starts with outlining the large opportunities offered by a concerted effort on wide-gap chalcopyrite. It then reveals a novel strategy making use of ferrofluids to explore the large scale fabrication of microconcentrator solar cells, promising to reduce critical raw materials needs by one to two orders of magnitude. Here, insights are drawn from recent and older literature on narrow-gap chalcopyrite with the ambition to fully unlock the potential of the material [10–12] and afford efficient dual junction chalcopyrite PV devices through a paradigm shift in microfabrication [13].
The research leading to these findings has received funding from the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (FNR) through the GALDOCHS project (Gas-phase alkali doping of chalcogenide semiconductors, C14/MS/8302176), from the European Commission through the Marie Curie Cofund NanoTrainfor-Growth II Project No. 713640, and from the European Innovation Council Pathfinder Open scheme grant no. 101046909: REMAP, Reusable Mask Patterning. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of the European Innovation Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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