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US 2026/0132043 A1Published application
Treatments for zinc telluride photoabsorbers
AssigneeAlliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC
InventorsChristopher Paul MUZZILLO, Andriy ZAKUTAYEV
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a method that includes treating a layer of ZnTe with a metal halide, where the layer has a first grain size between 25 nm and 250 nm before the treating and the layer has a second grain size after the treating that is larger than the first grain size. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the ZnTe may include at least one of Zn1-wCdwTe, ZnTe1-xSex, Zn1-yCdyTe1-zSez, or a combination thereof and each of w, x, y, and z are independently between 0 and 0.9, inclusively.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- treating a layer comprising ZnTe with a metal halide, wherein:
- the layer has a first grain size between 25 nm and 250 nm before the treating, and
- the layer has a second grain size after the treating that is larger than the first grain size.
A composition comprising:
- a layer comprising ZnTe, wherein:
- the layer comprises grains having a grain size between 50 nm and 1,000 nm or between 50 nm and 500 nm.
A device comprising:
- a cathode comprising a layer comprising ZnTe, wherein:
- the layer has a grain size between 50 nm and 500 nm, and
- an increased photocurrent density and Faradaic efficiency for the photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.