Simulation of a New CZTS Solar Cell Model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell Nanowires for High Efficiency
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper controlled the formation of the MoS2 layer between CZTS and Mo (back contact) to improve the optical properties and deposited a 1 nm thick graphene layer on the fitted model MoS2.
〇 In the background of the research, the nanowire structure and graphene are written separately, and I do not know what is good if the two are combined. In addition, there is no description of the originality of this study. It is said that a graphene layer with a thickness of 1 nm was deposited on MoS2 in order to improve the optical properties in the abstract, but the concept is unknown.
〇 There is a statement in the Abstract to improve the optical characteristics, but it is the open-circuit voltage that has increased.
〇 I don't understand the purpose well, and I don't understand the difference between the references. I think it is better to scrutinize it once and submit it separately.
Author Response
Reviewer
Crystals MDPI
mdpi.com/journal/crystals
April 23, 2022,
Subject: Response to the various suggestions of Manuscript ID: Crystals-1690306, titled " Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency "
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review and improve the quality of manuscript Crystals-1690306 "Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency" submitted to the Journal Crystals MDPI thanks to recommendations and suggestions of the reviewers. I appreciate the time and effort the reviewers and you have devoted to studying this manuscript in order to provide us with this valuable information and to improve the quality of the manuscript in accordance with the requirements of the Journal. May the examiners find here the expression of my deepest sympathy.
Please find point by point the answers to the questions and suggestions.
We hope that they will find our answers satisfactory and that the revised manuscript will be more suitable for Journal Crystals MDPI.
Sincerely,
Boubacar drame
School of Optoelectronic Engineering,
Changchun University of Science and Technology,
7089 Weixing Rd, Changchun, Jilin, China,
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors present the simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency. The research idea is well conceived but the manuscript is low in presentation and aesthetic value. The simulation results are interesting, however, the fabricated results are encouraged in such studies to qualify the pragmatic implementation of the proposed simulation design. I want the authors to consider the following points for publication.
1- Abstract is too short and concise. Follow the MDPI Crystals' instructions to write an abstract.
2- The last sentence of the abstract is very important, explaining the core results of the research. I want the authors to change the sentence in particular and improve the manuscript grammar and structure in general. I encourage the authors to even check the manuscript with an english editor or MDPI English editorial service.
3- Reference 12 is too old to be cited on this claim. I want the authors to cite a recent article on the claim for reference 12.
4- Provide the bibliographic reference of the un-derived base equations.
5- Why did the authors think the simulations are suffice to qualify the results? what is the pragmatic implementation of the results? The fabricated device along with the simulation is always preferred over mere simulation.
6- Provide the manuscript novelty and the most important results in the last introduction section.
7- The device structure looks complex. What is the fabrication value of the proposed structure? It would be great if the authors provide a similar structure with fabricated results as a reference.
Author Response
Reviewer
Crystals MDPI
mdpi.com/journal/crystals
April 23, 2022,
Subject: Response to the various suggestions of Manuscript ID: Crystals-1690306, titled " Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency "
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review and improve the quality of manuscript Crystals-1690306 "Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency" submitted to the Journal Crystals MDPI thanks to recommendations and suggestions of the reviewers. I appreciate the time and effort the reviewers and you have devoted to studying this manuscript in order to provide us with this valuable information and to improve the quality of the manuscript in accordance with the requirements of the Journal. May the examiners find here the expression of my deepest sympathy.
Please find point by point the answers to the questions and suggestions.
We hope that they will find our answers satisfactory and that the revised manuscript will be more suitable for Journal Crystals MDPI.
Sincerely,
Boubacar drame
School of Optoelectronic Engineering,
Changchun University of Science and Technology,
7089 Weixing Rd, Changchun, Jilin, China,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript entitled: “Simulated of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency” submitted to Crystals as Article describes simulation of inorganic solar cell model composed of Mo/MoS2/Cu2ZnSnS4@core-shell ZnO-CdS/CdS/ZnO/ITO. Authors presented detailed stap-by-step model description thermal and electrical parameters of each component and single column model. Afterwards, a model of solar cell composed of several single-column models was investigated and finally the photovoltaic parameters were presented. Author compared those results with a system containing thin graphene layer separating Mo form MoS2, which resulted in improvement of the final parameters of the solar cell.
The topic presented in the manuscript discuss interesting aspects of simulation of solar cell architecture in great detail. The strategy to use simulation prior to nay experimental study has proven its value and is used by many researchers to compare their results with the theoretical values. It helps to assess any possible issue and helps to choose the most optimal solution for testing as a pre-screening. I recommend this article for publishing after addressing minor issues.
Here is the list of issues that requires authors attention:
- General: I noticed in the manuscript linguistic errors that require authors attention. In some cases, i.e. page 1, line 33 – 40: some sentences are not finished and the their structure is grammatically incorrect.
- General: The manuscript is very spacious as for a standard research/study article. I would advise to select some data/explanation or detailed results and calculation to be placed in supplementary information.
- General: Authors did not structured the article in typical manner. In the section “Materials and methods” authors present partial description results and their discussion, i.e. page 3 lines 101-105; page 4, lines 128-137;page 6, line 158-167; page 5, lines 141-154. Also some description could be placed in the introduction part, because its narrows and explains selected by authors elements of the model.
- Results and Discussion: I would suggest to change slightly author’s approach in preparing the structure of the article. I would strongly suggest to put in “Materials and methods” only technical information such as details of used software (for instance: manufacturer, version, used modules, and so on), used equation with suitable explanation of all parameters, basic parameters of elements of the model coming from the literature. Any performed simulation (if relevant to explain the results directly) including simulation of single-column model and further the entire solar cell should be placed in the manuscript in separated sub-section. Other information used by authors (very detailed transformation of equations) should be placed in supplementary information. The supplementary information are available for readers in case they would like to check some details that are mentioned (cited) in the manuscript.
- Figure 9: In the figure caption authors should remove information “…(c) with and without interlayer…” since there is no “c” figure and the visualization of results in relation of hight of the model is already present in fig. 9a and b.
- Conclusions: It is not frequent for “usual” article (it is more frequently seen in review articles) to add recommendation to the section name. In my opinion a conclusion form the experimental results can come with a recommendation form authors about future work for the reader.
Author Response
Reviewer
Crystals MDPI
mdpi.com/journal/crystals
April 23, 2022,
Subject: Response to the various suggestions of Manuscript ID: Crystals-1690306, titled " Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency "
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review and improve the quality of manuscript Crystals-1690306 "Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency" submitted to the Journal Crystals MDPI thanks to recommendations and suggestions of the reviewers. I appreciate the time and effort the reviewers and you have devoted to studying this manuscript in order to provide us with this valuable information and to improve the quality of the manuscript in accordance with the requirements of the Journal. May the examiners find here the expression of my deepest sympathy.
Please find point by point the answers to the questions and suggestions.
We hope that they will find our answers satisfactory and that the revised manuscript will be more suitable for Journal Crystals MDPI.
Sincerely,
Boubacar drame
School of Optoelectronic Engineering,
Changchun University of Science and Technology,
7089 Weixing Rd, Changchun, Jilin, China,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
The authors presented Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency. However, there are a few comments to improve this paper:
- The novelty of this paper is not clearly mentioned in the manuscript. Please provide the novelty of this paper in the introduction section
- Please explain the role of each layer in the manuscript and explain why these materials are chosen in this manuscript
- Some of the important works missing in the introduction part of this paper; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123433, https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/636725, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.01.119,
- Please provide the ideal deposition processes for film deposition in actual condition to achieve the performance obtained in the simulation. Please provide an explanation why the process are chosen in the manuscript
- The manuscript lacked discussion for all results. Please provide more discussion in the manuscript
- Please provide a table of comparison to compare this work with other work for both simulation and experimental works
Author Response
May 12, 2022,
Dear reviewer,
Thank you very much for helping to improve the content and quality of the manuscript Crystals-1690306 "Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficient" submitted to Crystals MDPI Journal. Thanks to your recommendations and suggestions, substantial improvements have been made to make the manuscript interesting and attractive. I also appreciate the time and effort you have put into studying this manuscript to provide us with this valuable information and to improve the quality of the manuscript in accordance with Journal requirements. Please find here the expression of my deepest sympathy.
Please also find point-by-point answers to your questions and suggestions.
We hope you find our answers satisfactory and that the revised manuscript will be more suitable for the Journal Crystals MDPI.
Sincerely,
Boubacar drame
School of Optoelectronic Engineering,
Changchun University of Science and Technology,
7089 Weixing Rd, Changchun, Jilin, China,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 5 Report
The manuscript reports the simulation of CZTS solar cells with ZnO/CdS core-shell nanowires structure by COMSOL package. Several comments have to address as following:
- The bandgap of CZTS, CdS, and ZnO is 1.45, 2.4, and 3.37 eV, respectively. As shown in Fig. 10, the absorption spectra show a dominate absorption in range of 300-500 nm. It may be contributed to the CdS, but CZTS. Also, why they did not down to zero after 800 nm? It is so strange (still 40%).
- For visible, 1 nm-thick graphene is almost transparent. How to contribute to the absorption?
- In Table 2, the carrier concentration would be not zero. Also, for wide bandgap materials, Auger recombination coefficient would not be zero, too.
- Several similar work about CZTS solar cells with nanowires structure have published. The novelty is limit.
Therefore, I can not recommend it to publish.
Author Response
May 12, 2022,
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for helping to improve the content and quality of the manuscript Crystals-1690306 "Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficient" submitted to Crystals MDPI Journal. Thanks to your recommendations and suggestions, substantial improvements have been made to make the manuscript interesting and attractive. I also appreciate the time and effort you have put into studying this manuscript to provide us with this valuable information and to improve the quality of the manuscript in accordance with Journal requirements. Please find here the expression of my deepest sympathy.
Please also find point-by-point answers to your questions and suggestions.
We hope you find our answers satisfactory and that the revised manuscript will be more suitable for the Journal Crystals MDPI.
Sincerely,
Boubacar drame
School of Optoelectronic Engineering,
Changchun University of Science and Technology,
7089 Weixing Rd, Changchun, Jilin, China,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have significantly revised the manuscript. I hope it is now ready for publication. Hence, I would like to accept manuscript in present form.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for helping to improve the content and quality of manuscript Crystals-1690306 "Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficient" submitted to Crystals MDPI Journal.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
The authors revised the manuscript satisfactorily. Therefore, I think this paper is suitable for this publication.
Reviewer 5 Report
The author have responded the reviewer's comments. Therefore, in my opinion, the article could be accepted to publish.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In this manuscript, the authors have reported on the “Simulation of a new CZTS solar cell model with ZnO/CdS Core-Shell nanowires for high efficiency”. Though the manuscript is well-written by incorporating recent references, in my opinion, this manuscript cannot be considered for publication since the entire research is based on a model without confirming the formation of nanowires. Also, the novelty of the research is not specified by the authors.
Reviewer 2 Report
This work used the same model and methodology as the authors' previous paper published in International Journal of Opitcs, 2022, 5302790. The only inventive part would be the location for placing the single layer graphene, as shown, for example, in figure 7A. I won't judge such model design to be meaningful, because experimentally depositing a single layer graphene with penetrating core-shell nanowire array would be impractical. Therefore, I don't view the scientific novelty of this manuscript adequate for the journal in consideration.
