Highly Efficient and Stable Planar Perovskite Solar Cells With Large‐Scale Manufacture of E‐Beam Evaporated SnO₂ Toward Commercialization

Abstract

In recent years, photovoltaic properties of hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have led to impressive improvement. Yet, there is still remain a challenge for large scale application and commercialization. Some of the reasons are the instability of the perovskite film and the lack of large‐scale and low‐cost manufacture techniques for electron transport layer (ETL). Tin oxide (SnO2) has emerged as a promising candidate for ETL, however, systematic exploration of its commercialized application in PSCs is still missing. Here, SnO2 ETL is prepared through an electron beam evaporation technology under low‐temperature process to realize large‐scale, low‐cost, and uniform manufacture. Hundreds of SnO2 ETL substrates can be fabricated at one time, which deserves industrial deployment. As a result, PSCs based on e‐beam evaporated SnO2 ETL and Cs‐containing blended perovskite absorber layer exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 18.2% without any interface modification. Furthermore, the PSCs demonstrate remarkable long‐term stability, which remained at 97% of its initial PCE after being stored for over 34 days. The results demonstrate the great potential of the PSCs based on e‐beam evaporated SnO2 ETLs towards commercialization.

SnO2: A Wonderful Electron Transport Layer for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Several other physical vapor depositions were also utilized for SnO 2 deposition, such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and E‐beam evaporation . In these methods, the target or powders of SnO 2 were used for sputtering or evaporating, respectively.…”

“…Almost all fresh‐prepared SnO 2 films used in PSCs in reported literatures are treated with few minutes' UVO treatment, it seems to be a necessary and critical step before perovskite layer deposition. For instance, Fang and co‐workers treated their spin‐coated SnO 2 and e‐beam evaporation prepared SnO 2 substrate by UVO for 15 min before perovskite fabrication. Hagfeldt and co‐workers cleaned their ALD‐SnO 2 and SC‐CBD‐SnO 2 layers with an UVO treatment for few minutes immediately before deposition of the perovskite films .…”

Perovskite Solar Cells: From the Laboratory to the Assembly Line

“…PSC architecture is quite simple in its standard configuration: a conductive glass (or plastic foil) supports an electron extraction layer (like TiO 2 or SnO 2 ), on top of which the perovskite‐active material is deposited. A hole‐transporting material (HTM) is coated above the perovskite layer, and gold back‐contacts are evaporated on the top of the cell .…”

“…PSC architecture is quite simple in its standard configuration:aconductive glass (or plastic foil) supports an electron extraction layer (like TiO 2 or SnO 2 [13] ), on top of which the perovskite-active material is deposited.Ahole-transporting material (HTM) is coated above the perovskite layer,a nd gold backcontactsa re evaporated on the top of the cell. [14][15][16][17] Sunlight absorption leads to charge-generation, and both negative and positivec hargec arriers are transported through the perovskite to charges electivec ontacts.T he core of this device is the perovskitel ayer,b earing ag eneric structure ABX 3 ,i nw hich Ai sa monovalentc ation (like methylammonium CH 3 NH 3 + ,f ormamidinium CH 2 (NH 2 ) 2 + ,C s + ,R b + ), Bs tands for Pb II or Sn II and X for Io rB r. [18] The successo ft his materials is given by its outstanding optoelectronic properties,m erging high absorption coefficient and mobility,l ow exciton binding energy and long balanced carrier diffusion length; [19][20][21][22][23] moreover,t he device can also work in the inverted configuration.…”

To Be Higher and Stronger—Metal Oxide Electron Transport Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…ZnO ETLs prepared by combustion method exhibited superb chemical compatibility with the perovskite absorber and the corresponding devices achieved high PCEs close to 20% . Moreover, other physical deposition methods were also employed to deposit MO ETLs, such as magnetron sputtering, e‐beam evaporation, and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) . In these methods, metal oxides have crystallized during the process of deposition on the substrates without further postannealing treatment.…”