A facial synthesis of a copper (I) thiourea sulphate complex and its application for highly efficient chalcopyrite solar cells

The precursor compound plays a crucial role in the development of low-cost chalcogenide thin-film solar cells via a solution approach. In this work, we report on the synthesis of a new complex [Cu((NH2)2CS)3]2SO4·H2O through a simple redox reaction between inexpensive Cu(CH3COO)2·H2O and thiourea (TU) in water. Using this complex as a copper source, a stable dimethylformamide solution was made and copper indium sulfoselenide CuIn(S,Se)2 thin film solar cells with a high efficiency of 12.2% have been demonstrated.