Newsletter II December 2017

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Jordan Mason
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most recent and relevant (key) results and advances, following up of the work plans, the latest news of the project.

Objectives STARCELL aims to substitute two critical raw materials (In and Ga) used in conventional thin film photovoltaic (PV)

Targets To optimize materials, processes and devices in order to achieve a Kesterite solar cell with 18 % efficiencies (16% at

1 Newsletter II December 2017 Sustainability Innovation Future H2020-NMBP Advanced strategies for substitution of critical raw materials in photovoltaics Welcome As the second edition of this communication, this newsletter offers a summary of the project s most recent and relevant (key) results and advances, following up of the work plans, the latest news of the project. This number also presents the most recent STARCELL project related events. Objectives STARCELL aims to substitute two critical raw materials (In and Ga) used in conventional thin film photovoltaic (PV) technologies, via the introduction of sustainable Kesterite (Cu 2 ZnSn(S,Se) 4 - CZTS) semiconductors. Targets To optimize materials, processes and devices in order to achieve a Kesterite solar cell with 18 % efficiencies (16% at mini-module level) at a cost 0.30 /Wp at TRL5. This project is supported by European Union s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No , project STARCELL (Advanced strategies for substation of critical raw materials in photovoltaics).

Innovation Through an innovative approach, STARCELL will cover the

supply chain of raw materials to the product recycling/reuse, by

Absorber innovations Contact innovations Latest news The

emphasis in the collaboration between the partners.

implemented a very fruitful collaboration, achieving an 11.

obtaining graded band-gap absorbers, following the efficiency roadmap

During March 2017 STARCELL launched an ambitious press campaign to

The press campaign target a general audience and is published in

2 Innovation Through an innovative approach, STARCELL will cover the complete value chain of the technology under development, from the supply chain of raw materials to the product recycling/reuse, by planning the development of Kesterite PV in a sustainable circular economy approach from the beginning. Value chain innovations Recycling innovations Front innovations Absorber innovations Contact innovations Latest news The international collaboration in STARCELL has started with strong emphasis in the collaboration between the partners. Very recently, researchers from IREC in Spain and AIST in Japan, have implemented a very fruitful collaboration, achieving an 11.8 % efficiency device with pure Se kesterite that was recently published. This is just the starting point of this collaboration focused in obtaining graded band-gap absorbers, following the efficiency roadmap of STARCELL. During March 2017 STARCELL launched an ambitious press campaign to promote the main activities of the Project. The press campaign target a general audience and is published in several media, for example: 7/03/22/irec-to-coordinate-the-h2020- project-starcell/ cio/afers_exteriors/ue/fons_europeus/detall s/noticia/ _starcell

Latest news Last 8-9 June 2017, the STARCELL consortium met at the Imperial

During the meeting all the partners discusses about the last advancements in

Additionally, the work for the next 6 months period was planned, proposing

organized in the IREC headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, during 7-8 November

Rakesh Agrawal from Purdue University (USA) at IREC headquarters.

University in USA, Prof. Rakesh Agrawal.

Agrawal gave a Seminar about the most recent activities performed in his

3 Latest news Last 8-9 June 2017, the STARCELL consortium met at the Imperial College London headquarters in London UK, for the 6 months project meeting. During the meeting all the partners discusses about the last advancements in STARCELL, presenting very new results in the different project work packages. Additionally, the work for the next 6 months period was planned, proposing very innovative approaches that will be investigated in the frame of the project. During this meeting, the consortium agreed to plan the next one to be organized in the IREC headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, during 7-8 November Seminar of Prof. Rakesh Agrawal from Purdue University (USA) at IREC headquarters. IREC received the visit of a very distinguished scientist from Purdue University in USA, Prof. Rakesh Agrawal. After the introduction of IREC, Prof. Agrawal gave a Seminar about the most recent activities performed in his Research Group, explaining the last advancements in the development of solution processed kesterites. The talk finished with a round table with several questions from the audience, mainly from STARCELL students, followed by a visit to the IREC laboratories and the discussion of possible future collaborations.

Latest news STARCELL participates in EUPV cluster activities Dr.

Alejandro Pérez- Rodríguez (Head of the Solar Energy Materials and Systems Group at IREC) have participated in the last European

and 25 October 2017, with the support of EMIRI and the European Commission. Prof.

Dr. Saucedo has presented the last results obtained in STARCELL project.

4 Latest news STARCELL participates in EUPV cluster activities Dr. Edgardo Saucedo (Coordinator of STARCELL) and Prof. Dr. Alejandro Pérez- Rodríguez (Head of the Solar Energy Materials and Systems Group at IREC) have participated in the last European workshop on nanotechnologies & advanced materials for photovoltaics & concentrated solar power, organized in Brussels during last 24 and 25 October 2017, with the support of EMIRI and the European Commission. Prof. Pérez- Rodríguez has presented the state of the art and perspective of industrial and emerging thin film photovoltaic technologies, and Dr. Saucedo has presented the last results obtained in STARCELL project. STARCELL 12 months Meeting The 12 months project meeting organized at IREC headquarters in showed to be very successfully organized, with presentation of new and exciting results obtained in the different work-packages. At the evening, the whole consortium organize a very nice activity all-together for cooking the future of kesterites! Prof. Alejandro Pérez Rodríguez in the EUPV cluster in Brussels, Belgium.

Workshops NEXTGEN PV 2017 School IREC and IM2NP (Aix-Marseille University) organized the 3rd Edition of the NEXTGEN PV School hosted in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, during 12-15

The School included a half day Workshop fully dedicated to the review and discussion of the last advancements and future perspectives of kesterites, organized by STARCELL in collaboration with other

Ji-Sang Park (ICL-UK) and Johan Lauwaert (University of Gent-Belgium). Program The program of the NEXTGEN PV 2017 School and Workshop is available in the event website: (http://www.nextgennanopv.

5 Workshops NEXTGEN PV 2017 School IREC and IM2NP (Aix-Marseille University) organized the 3rd Edition of the NEXTGEN PV School hosted in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, during September 2017 ( The School included a half day Workshop fully dedicated to the review and discussion of the last advancements and future perspectives of kesterites, organized by STARCELL in collaboration with other European H2020 Project: SWING. With the participation of 4 Invited speakers including Dr. Bart Vermang (IMEC-Belgium), Dr. Teodor Todorov (IBM- USA), Dr. Ji-Sang Park (ICL-UK) and Johan Lauwaert (University of Gent-Belgium). Program The program of the NEXTGEN PV 2017 School and Workshop is available in the event website: ( NEXTGEN included one workshop in New earth abundant materials and devices for PV organized for STARCELL. Additionally a special session for sharing experiences between several European Projects was organized, where STARCELL partners vigorously participated. With a very impacting program, the last advances as well as future challenges of kesterites were discussed between the specialists and students participating in this event. In addition, STARCELL has been presented to all the participants. Picture of participants to the NextGen PV School.

Workshops 8th European Kesterite Workshop The 8th European Kesterite Workshop was held at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) during the 9th and 10th of November

Luxembourg (Luxembourg, 2012), the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (Germany, 2013), the Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia, 2014), the Northumbria University (UK, 2015) and IMEC (Belgium, 2016).

Galina Gurieva from HZB (Germany) in XRD related techniques, Juran Kim from Ewha Woman University (South Korea) in AFM related techniques, and finally by Christian Andres from EMPA (Switzerland) in

6 Workshops 8th European Kesterite Workshop The 8th European Kesterite Workshop was held at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) during the 9th and 10th of November This Workshop follows a consolidated tradition that was initiated in 2010 at Uppsala University (Sweden) continuing in the University of Barcelona and IREC (Spain, 2011), the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg, 2012), the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (Germany, 2013), the Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia, 2014), the Northumbria University (UK, 2015) and IMEC (Belgium, 2016). Pre-workshop Student Day In this occassion, the students attending the Workshop including several PhD students involved in the STARCELL project. The event started with 3 Tutorial Talks given by Dr. Galina Gurieva from HZB (Germany) in XRD related techniques, Juran Kim from Ewha Woman University (South Korea) in AFM related techniques, and finally by Christian Andres from EMPA (Switzerland) in alkaline doping of kesterites. At the afternoon the students presented several flash talks about their contributon to the European Kesterite Workshop, finishing with a Round Table discussing the hot topics on kesterite. Program With the participation of over 100 scientist, from 22 different countries in 5 continents! The Workshop started with an Introduction Talk given by Prof. Alejandro Pérez-Rodríguez (Head of the Solar Energy Materials and System Group at IREC) and Dr. Edgardo Saucedo (IREC, Coordinator of STARCELL), and followed by an Invited Talk given by Prof. David Mitzi from Duke University. STARCELL is supporting this Workshop and contributing with 12 Talks and 7 Posters, and with the participation of several PhD students and researchers involved in the STARCELL project.

Key results Some of the most recent and relevant (key) results obtained during this last period (12 M) by the different partners of the STARCELL consortium are summarized and presented in this

7 Key results Some of the most recent and relevant (key) results obtained during this last period (12 M) by the different partners of the STARCELL consortium are summarized and presented in this section: I: Optimization of the different annealing procedure for kesterite formation. The presence of Ge strongly affects the in-depth elemental distribution, delaying and minimizing the fast Cu-out diffusion and the formation of Sn-Se volatile species, and consequently avoiding Sn losses to a large extent. This allows modifying the reaction pathways of CZTSe from a tri-molecular mechanism for the layers without Ge, towards a mainly bi-molecular one for the samples containing Ge. The immediate effect is the large improvement of the CZTSe morphology, where very well crystallized layers with grains extending over the whole thickness are easily obtained (left-side figure). The main role of Ge seems to be related to the stabilization of Cu-Sn phases, impacting in the elemental in-depth distribution and ultimately in the reaction pathways of the kesterite. Through the optimization of the quantity of Ge together with the location of this element (optimum: 10 nm Ge below the CTZ precursor and 5 nm Ge on top), we succeed to achieve a device that can be considered almost pure Cu2ZnSnSe4 and with 11.8% conversion efficiency (J-V curve shown in the right-side figure).

Key results II: Investigation of the effect of alkaline dopants and optimization of the Li incorporation.

64 were processed. Bandgap change and (400)/(008) XRD peaks shift confirmed Li alloys with kesterite.

8 Key results II: Investigation of the effect of alkaline dopants and optimization of the Li incorporation. Kesterite samples with lithium content in the precursor solution ranging from Li/(Cu+Li) = 0.02 to 0.64 were processed. Bandgap change and (400)/(008) XRD peaks shift confirmed Li alloys with kesterite. For Li content up to Li/(Cu+Li) = 0.34, increase in bandgap and grain size was observed. Samples with Li/(Cu+Li) > 0.34 developed smaller grains throughout the absorber thickness and unexpected XRD behaviour. The Best JV results with an 11.5 % efficiency were obtained with Li/Cu+ Li = 0.26 in solution, corresponding to Li/Cu+Li = 0.06 in the absorber.

9 Key results II: Innovative oxygen surface treatment by AIST. On the other hand, it was found that the Na incorporation led to improvement of FF and Jsc, however, Voc was not improved. It was concluded to be due to the limitation of surface recombination, and oxygen surface treatments were demonstrated to get rid of this limitation and to improve Voc. In this study, an optimization of the process was investigated with the use of Na incorporation and surface treatments. Thinner CdS buffers were used in combination with ALD deposited ZnO, which is considered to be less damaging for CdS buffers, and which allows to use thinner CdS buffers. In this study, 30 nm CdS buffers were used with Na incorporation and surface treatments, and an efficiency of 11.7 % was obtained for a CZTSe solar cell. The device parameters are listed in the Table below, and compared with the current IBM CZTSe champion cell: it can be observed that almost all the device parameters are similar.

Recent Publications STARCELL has produced six publications during this period in very

Congratulations for the success in such impacting work!

Edgardo Saucedo from IREC, have been invited to give a speech in the past MRS Fall Meeting

Kesterite Solar Cells, Stephan Hass, Christian Anders, Yaroslav Romanyuk, Ayodhya Tiwari

Edgardo Saucedo, Jacob Andrade-Arvizu, Yudania Sanchez, Marcel Placidi, Victor Izquierdo,

10 Recent Publications STARCELL has produced six publications during this period in very relevant and high impact factor Journals! Congratulations for the success in such impacting work! Invited Talks at the MRS Fall Meeting in Boston! Prof. Ayodhya N. Tiwary from EMPA, and Dr. Edgardo Saucedo from IREC, have been invited to give a speech in the past MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, USA, last December 2017: Effect of Alkali Elements on the Solution-Processed Kesterite Solar Cells, Stephan Hass, Christian Anders, Yaroslav Romanyuk, Ayodhya Tiwari Solution Based Approaches for Earth Abundant Kesterite Thin-Film Photovoltaic Technologies, Edgardo Saucedo, Jacob Andrade-Arvizu, Yudania Sanchez, Marcel Placidi, Victor Izquierdo, Alejandro Perez-Rodriguez The talks were included in the Symposium EM10 Solution-Processed Inorganics for Electronic and Photonic Device Applications, with a wide promotion of STARCELL project.

HipoCIGS: enamelled steel as substrate for thin film solar cells

HipoCIGS: enamelled steel as substrate for thin film solar cells Lecturer D. Jacobs*, Author S. Efimenko, Co-author C. Schlegel *:PRINCE Belgium bvba, Pathoekeweg 116, 8000 Brugge, Belgium, djacobs@princecorp.com