Ambient Air Blade‐Coating Fabrication of Stable Triple‐Cation Perovskite Solar Modules by Green Solvent Quenching

Abstract

Although halide perovskite solar cell (PSC) technology reaches, in few years, efficiencies greater than 25%, the cost‐ceffective perspective is achievable only if scalable processes in real manufacturing conditions (i.e., pilot line and/or plant factory) are designed and optimized for the full device stack. Herein, a full semiautomatic scalable process based on the blade‐coating technique is demonstrated to fabricate perovskite solar modules in ambient conditions. An efficient and stable triple‐cation cesium methylammonium formamidinium (CsMAFA) perovskite is deposited in ambient air with a two‐step process assisted by air and green anti‐solvent quenching. The developed industry compatible coating process enables the fabrication of several highly reproducible small‐area cells on module size substrate with an efficiency exceeding 17% and with high reproducibility. Corresponding reproducible modules (less than 2% variability) with a 90% geometrical fill factor achieve an efficiency larger than 16% and T 80 = 750 h in light‐soaking condition at maximum power point and room temperature/ambient after encapsulation. Film deposition properties are assessed by different characterization techniques, namely, scanning electron microscopy, profilometry, UV–vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and PL and electroluminescence imaging. The techniques confirm less defects and local coating variations of the ambient air/bladed devices with respect to the nitrogen air/spinned devices.

Recent Developments in Upscalable Printing Techniques for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…small molecules like Spiro-OMeTAD [119][120][121][122] and NiO x , [123][124][125] but also electron transport layers (ETLs) like the fullerenes C 60 , [112] PCBM, [112,124,126,127] ZnO, [128] SnO 2 , [129][130][131][132] and TiO 2 . [133] Recently, Lee et al developed a new donor-acceptor-donor type HTL with 4-dicyanomethylene-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4b']dithiophene (diCN-CPDT) core tethered with two bis(alkoxy) diphenylaminocarbazole periphery groups (Figure 3b) and applied it for the fabrication of fully printed perovskite solar cell using a thermal assisted blade-coating technique. [122] These fully printed PSCs delivered a PCE as high as 21.09% (Figure 3c), the highest PCE obtained from fully printed PSCs without using dopant in the HTL.…”

“…[ 24,113 ] Furthermore, several groups have successfully developed blade‐coating technique for printing of not only HTLs like the polymers PEDOT:PSS, [ 112,114–116 ] and PTAA [ 117,118 ] or small molecules like Spiro‐OMeTAD [ 119–122 ] and NiO x , [ 123–125 ] but also electron transport layers (ETLs) like the fullerenes C 60 , [ 112 ] PCBM, [ 112,124,126,127 ] ZnO, [ 128 ] SnO 2 , [ 129–132 ] and TiO 2 . [ 133 ] Recently, Lee et al. developed a new donor–acceptor–donor type HTL with 4‐dicyanomethylene‐4H‐cyclopenta[2,1‐b;3,4‐b’]dithiophene (diCN‐CPDT) core tethered with two bis(alkoxy) diphenylaminocarbazole periphery groups (Figure 3b) and applied it for the fabrication of fully printed perovskite solar cell using a thermal assisted blade‐coating technique.…”

Scalable processing for realizing 21.7%-efficient all-perovskite tandem solar modules

“…We speculate that the CDB technique is a universal approach to enhance the efficiency and stability of all types of perovskite solar modules. To facilitate mass production in the future, development of a green solvent system (avoiding the use of toxic DMF) should be considered for the manufacturing of all-perovskite tandem solar modules ( 39 , 40 ).…”

Efficient and Stable Perovskite Large Area Cells by Low-Cost Fluorene-Xantene-Based Hole Transporting Layer

“…One of the key factors for further development of PVSK solar technology is the upscaling from a small area cell to module size [10,32]. The first step in this direction is the fabrication of a large area cell with a size greater than 1 cm 2 [33].…”

“…The reasons behind such rapid development are related to the high absorption coefficient, the ambipolar charge transport, the high charge carriers lifetime and diffusion length, the flexible bandgap tuning, the low exciton binding energy and the defect tolerance of the PVSK absorber [3][4][5]. The affinity with fabrication procedures based on solution process deposition techniques from organic electronics and the experience acquired from previous PV technologies (dye-sensitized and copper indium gallium selenide solar cells) further contribute to the success of PVSK PV in terms of performance [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. The PVSK absorber is formed by an organic/inorganic cation (e.g., methylammonium CH 3 NH 3 + , formamidinium CH(NH 2 ) 2 + , Cs or their mixture), a divalent IV-A group metal (lead, tin or germanium) and an inorganic halide anion (I − , Br − or Cl − ).…”