Toward a Scalable Fabrication of Perovskite Solar Cells under Fully Ambient Air Atmosphere: From Spin-Coating to Inkjet-Printing of Perovskite Absorbent Layer

Argyroula Mourtzikou,Dimitris A Chalkias,Giannis Katsagounos,Alexandros N Kalarakis,Elias Stathatos,Aggeliki Karavioti

doi:10.3390/electronics10161904

Argyroula Mourtzikou, Dimitris A Chalkias + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10161904

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Abstract

Up until now, the vast majority of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have relied on the spin-coating of perovskite precursor solution under inert fully controlled conditions, with the performance of solar cells that are developed by alternative techniques and under an ambient atmosphere to lag far behind. This impedes the technology transfer from the laboratory to industrial large-scale production; thus, the investigation of new scalable techniques should be thoroughly considered. The present work constitutes one of the few investigations on the application of inkjet-printing as an advanced alternative technique to the conventional spin-coating technique used for the fabrication of fully ambient air-processed perovskite absorbent layers for carbon-based hole transport layer-free PSCs. A systematic study of the characteristics of the perovskite material and solar cells indicated that the coffee-ring effect combined with poor ink penetration into the mesoporous network of the anode semiconductor were the main reasons for obtaining poor perovskite structure morphology and lower PSC performance by inkjet-printing, which arises from a lower internal quantum efficiency and an increased charge transfer and recombination rate. On the other hand, the crystallinity and optical characteristics of the materials obtained by the compared techniques did not differ considerably, while small differences were observed in the hysteretic behavior and long-term stability of the solar cells.

Highlights

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy accounts for only a small part of global electricity production, it has the potential to meet the global energy needs by several folds through the use of currently available technologies [1]
A piece of Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass, which was previously cut to the desired dimensions and chemically etched to retain a pattern electrode, was used as a substrate to develop n-i-p perovskite solar cells (PSCs); this was preceded by the thorough cleaning of the substrate using detergent, deionized water and acetone, followed by its calcination at 500 ◦C to remove any contaminants
The perovskite precursor solution was composed of 1 M methylammonium iodide (MAI) and 1 M PbI2 in DMF; its preparation was conducted at room temperature conditions, and the solution was filtered through a 0.45 μm PTFE filter before its usage

Summary

Introduction

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy accounts for only a small part of global electricity production, it has the potential to meet the global energy needs by several folds through the use of currently available technologies [1]. The commercialization and mass production of C-based HTL-free PSCs is favored due to several reasons, including the low cost of carbon materials, simple design, full compatibility with printing fabrication techniques, all of which are combined with high stability, which is usually much higher compared to that of conventional metal electrode devices. For these reasons, this architecture is considered to be the front runner to the PV market [8]. One noteworthy achievement was attained by Tao et al, who developed a fully ambient air-processed C-based HTL-free PSC that is able to provide 16.25% PCE and retains >90% of its initial performance for 22 weeks [10]

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