Abstract
Perovskite solar cells with TiO2 electron transport layers exhibit power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 22.7% in single cells. However, the preparation process of the TiO2 layer is adopted by an unscalable method or requires high-temperature sintering, which precludes its potential use for mass production of flexible devices. In this study, a scalable low-temperature soft-cover-assisted hydrolysis (SAH) method is presented, where the precursor solution is sandwiched between a soft cover and preheated substrate to form a closed hydrolysis environment. Compact homogeneous TiO2 films with a needle-like structure were obtained after the hydrolysis of a TiCl4 aqueous solution. Moreover, by careful optimization of the TiO2 fabrication conditions, a high PCE of 14.01% could be achieved for a solar module (4 × 4 cm2) prepared using the SAH method. This method provides a novel approach for the efficient scale-up of the low-temperature TiO2 film growth for industrial applications.
Highlights
Experimental MethodsPerovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been demonstrated to be next-generation photovoltaic devices that meet future energy-generation demands owing to their high power conversion efficiency (PCE), low cost, simple solutionbased preparation, lightweight, and flexibility [1,2,3,4,5,6]
A PSC based on a TiO2 layer prepared by spin coating (SC) chlorine-capped TiO2 colloidal nanocrystal solutions has achieved a PCE of 19.5%, with an active area of 1.1 cm2, which is the highest PCE reported for PSCs prepared at low temperatures [22]
We report a simple low-temperature softcover-assisted hydrolysis (SAH) method, where a soft polyimide (PI) film is used to cover a TiCl4 aqueous solution spread on a preheated substrate
Summary
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been demonstrated to be next-generation photovoltaic devices that meet future energy-generation demands owing to their high power conversion efficiency (PCE), low cost, simple solutionbased preparation, lightweight, and flexibility [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The high-temperature processing of the TiO2 layer makes their manufacture more complex and hampers the development of lightweight and flexible substrates To overcome this limitation, several deposition techniques to fabricate TiO2 films at low temperatures have been successfully implemented, such as spin coating (SC) [11,12,13], atomic layer deposition (ALD) [14, 15], sputtering [16,17,18], chemical bath deposition [19, 20], and electron-beam evaporation [21]. The proposed SAH technology provides a novel non-SC route to the deposition of large-area TiO2 films for industrial applications
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