Precursor Engineering of Solution‐Processed Sb2S3 Solar Cells

Antimony‐based chalcogenides have emerged as promising candidates for next‐generation thin film photovoltaics. Particularly, binary Sb2S3 thin films have exhibited great potential for optoelectronic applications, due to the facile and low‐cost fabrication, simple composition, decent charge transport and superior stability. However, most of the reported efficient Sb2S3 solar cells are realized based on chemical bath deposition and hydrothermal methods, which require large amount of solution and are normally very time‐consuming. In this work, Ag ions are introduced within the Sb2S3 sol‐gel precursors, and effectively modulated the crystallization and charge transport properties of Sb2S3. The crystallinity of the Sb2S3 crystal grains are enhanced and the charge carrier mobility is increased, which resulted improved charge collection efficiency and reduced charge recombination losses, reflected by the greatly improved fill factor and open‐circuit voltage of the Ag incorporated Sb2S3 solar cells. The champion devices reached a record high power conversion efficiency of 7.73% (with antireflection coating), which is comparable with the best photovoltaic performance of Sb2S3 solar cells achieved based on chemical bath deposition and hydrothermal techniques, and pave the great avenue for next‐generation solution‐processed photovoltaics. Solution‐processed Sb2S3 solar cells are achieved via a precursor route. Ag ions is introduced to modulate the crystallization and optoelectronic properties of the antimony sulfide thin films, and the optimized devices exhibited remarkably enhanced photovoltaic performance due to the significantly enhanced charge transport and reduced disorderness.