Transparent photovoltaics (TPV) is an efficient and practical way of producing renewable energy. While optimizing visible transmission and light-matter interaction in semiconductors is a critical challenge in the TPV, using two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors has been considered a promising solution for the TPV due to their high quantum yield and stability. The remained challenges with 2D semiconductors for the TPV are non-scalability in the fabrication method and the limited power generation with low open-circuit voltages. Here, we report wafer-scale TPV based on tin sulfide (SnS) with a sulfur-rich nanoplatelet geometry. The sulfur-rich SnS nanoplatelets originate from the unique thermodynamic nature of the growth process from confined tin and sulfur vapors between a solid SnS source and variable substrates in close proximity. The ultraviolet-selective photovoltaics with SnS via proximity vapor transfer demonstrates stable and balanced light-matter interaction: visible transmission of 60%, an open-circuit voltage of 0.7 V, and an output power of 6 mW by a 60 mW light. Our wafer-scale SnS overcomes current issues on stability and visible transmission for practical TPV.
The authors acknowledge the financial support of Precedent Research Program by HDC-ICONTROLS, the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea by the Ministry of Education ( NRF-2015H1D3A1066311 , 2016R1D1A1B03931639 and NRF-2019R1F1A1058949 ) and the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy ( KETEP-20133030011000 ). H.Y. acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) under Grant No. NRF-2018M3D1A1058793 . The authors acknowledge TEM analysis from Dr. Hyeong-Ho Park in Korea Advanced Nanofab Center.
