Employing Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) Method on the Fabrication of Cu3BiS3-Semiconductor-Sensitized Solar Cells

Successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method is a modified version of chemical bath deposition (CDB) that serves as a low-cost and convenient on the production of ternary metal chalcogenides. This research reported the utilization of SILAR method on the fabrication of Cu3BiS3 semiconductor-sensitized solar cells. The concentration of bismuth and copper precursor were varied, namely 0.03 M and 0.1 M, whereas the precursor of sulfide was varied in the concentration of 0.02 M and 0.05 M. The variation of SILAR cycles was employed to investigate the most appropriate cycle numbers in producing Cu3BiS3, in particular 3-9 cycles, 5-15 cycles, and 6-6 cycle with the immersing time of 20 s for each. The results show that there were only two suitable peaks appeared for 3-9 cycles and 6-6 cycles, while 5-15 cycles provide the more preferable XRD patterns with the power conversion efficiency of 0.02% (Jsc of 1.75 mA/cm2; Voc of 0.04 V; FF of 29.65%). It can be said that SILAR method with higher number of cycles can be employed to fabricate Cu3BiS3; however, smaller PCE came from inappropriate structure alignment between Cu3BiS3 and metal oxide layer.