Inkjet printed perovskite solar cells: progress and prospects

Abstract

In the field of photovoltaic materials, perovskite has attracted extensive attention during the past years, owing to its excellent photovoltaic properties, including high charge carrier mobility, low exciton binding energy, long charge carrier diffusion length, broad light absorption spectrum, large absorption coefficient, and low-cost solution processability. However, due to the limitations of film preparation methods (typical spin coating), industrial large-scale production of perovskite solar cells is still in infancy. The inkjet printing technology is a significant manufacturing technology developed from home and office printing and widely used in various printing electronics industries. Compared with other deposition methods, it possesses many advantages, including low cost, high material utilization, high patterning precision, etc. As a direct writing technology, the inkjet printing has shown great industrial potential and is expected to be employed in the industrialization of perovskite solar cells. In this paper, we review the research progress of perovskite solar cells fabricated via the inkjet printing and the application of inkjet printing technology to various functional layers (electrode, hole transport layer, electron transport layer, perovskite active layer). Finally, the challenges of inkjet printed perovskite solar cells at this stage are discussed, and the commercialization direction of inkjet printed perovskite solar cells is also pointed out.