Exploring vanadium-chalcogenides toward solar cell application: A review

In the search for an alternative to expensive silicon solar cells, transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) are emerging as promising new semiconducting materials for photovoltaic applications. Among all TMCs, vanadium chalcogenides (VCs) i.e., vanadium oxide (V_xO_y), vanadium selenide (VSe₂), and vanadium sulfide (VS₂) exhibit excellent electrical and optical properties such as high electrical conductivity, superb catalytic activity, and low charge-transfer resistance, which make them suitable for a variety of energy applications, including energy conversion storage, electrocatalysts, etc. This review comprehensively summarizes the progress that has been made on vanadium chalcogenide-based solar cells (SC). VCs have demonstrated their suitability as n- or p-type semiconducting layers in heterojunction solar cells (HJSC) due to their greater energy band gaps than silicon. Inexpensive, high thermal stability, and superior catalytic activity of VCs, they can be used as replacements for platinum counter-electrodes in DSSC. To avoid electrode degradation in organic SCs, VCs can be used as hole extraction layers or anode interlayers due to their unique electronic properties and chemical stability. VSe₂ and VS₂ can be used as photoelectrodes in ECPV SCs due to their wide band gap ranges (0.5–2.5 eV). Review explores synthesis and photovoltaic properties of various solar cell parameters based on vanadium-chalcogenides.