Progress in blade-coating method for perovskite solar cells toward commercialization

Abstract

The hybrid organic–inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted considerable attention in the photovoltaic community during the last decade due to unique properties, such as high absorption coefficient, solutionable fabrication, and compatibility with roll-to-roll technology. A certified power conversion efficiency of PSCs as high as 25.2% has been obtained, approaching the levels of silicon solar cells, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar cells. However, the device area of a PSC is one of the biggest challenges for the commercialize applications. To fabricate large-area PSCs, various fabrication methods have been proposed, including spray coating, slot-die coating, vacuum deposition, and blade coating. Here, the blade-coating technique progress for the PSC fabrication has been reviewed. Moreover, the optimized ways during the solution fabrication process, the efficient strategy for improving the perovskite films' morphology, have also been summarized in this work. In the last part, the challenges and opportunities of PSC commercialization have also been proposed.

Recent Developments in Upscalable Printing Techniques for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…[109] Apart from these physical and chemical modification approaches, several other approaches such as solvent engineering, adding, and doping strategies have also been summarized well in the previous reports. [24,113] Furthermore, several groups have successfully developed blade-coating technique for printing of not only HTLs like the polymers PEDOT:PSS, [112,[114][115][116] and PTAA [117,118] or Reproduced with permission. [122] Copyright 2021, Elsevier.…”

“…[ 109 ] Apart from these physical and chemical modification approaches, several other approaches such as solvent engineering, adding, and doping strategies have also been summarized well in the previous reports. [ 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.…”

“…However, devices with large‐area (>100 cm 2 ) are required for the commercialization of PSCs. [ 23 ] Therefore, to upscale and commercialize PSCs, other fabrication techniques such as D bar blade coating, [ 24 ] slot die coating, [ 25 ] spray coating, [ 26 ] solvent‐free stamping, [ 27 ] vacuum‐deposition methods, [ 28 ] and various printing methods were utilized by several researchers. [ 13,29 ] Especially, printing methods are more effective in fabricating large‐area components with high throughputs at low cost and can be highly beneficial to manufacturing large‐scale PSCs.…”

Time‐Resolved Orientation and Phase Analysis of Lead Halide Perovskite Film Annealing Probed by In Situ GIWAXS

“…[17][18][19] However, there still exists an efficiency gap between spin-cast and slot-die coated devices, since largearea and high-quality thin-film deposition remains challenging, and researchers continue to explore many different solvent systems, compositions, bulk or nanocrystal materials, layer structures, hole transport materials, and electron transport materials, and processing parameters. [20][21][22][23][24][25] Complexity is high since external parameters have to be taken into account and can influence the morphology, degradation, and ultimately device performance. [26] Spin coating is still by far the most prominent hybrid perovskite thin-film deposition method, since it offers a combination of benefits for small batches typically done in research, including affordable commercial devices, flexibility in substrate, and precursor solution.…”

Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Perovskite Halide Materials for Photovoltaics towards Their Commercialization

“…To meet the requirements of a high quality and large-area uniformity for perovskite films, several deposition methods, based on solution, vacuum [15][16][17], and solution-vacuum hybrid processes, have been developed and optimized. Recent works have been based on solution processes, such as spin-coating [18], spray-coating [19,20], blade coating [21,22], slot-die coating [23,24], softcover [25][26][27], and screen printing [28][29][30]. However, even with several achievements in terms of grain size and increases in efficiencies through different fabrication method, these are still not enough for successful commercialization of perovskite PVs due to the remaining challenges that need to be solved.…”