Scaling-up perovskite solar cells on hydrophobic surfaces

by Furkan H. Isikgor, Anand S. Subbiah, Mathan K. Eswaran, Calvyn T. Howells, Aslihan Babayigit, Michele De Bastiani, Emre Yengel, Jiang Liu, Francesco Furlan, George T. Harrison, Shynggys Zhumagali, Jafar I.Khan, Frédéric Laquai, Thomas D. Anthopoulos, Iain McCulloch, Udo Schwingenschlögl, Stefaan De Wolf

Full Paper Year: 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105633

Bibliography

Furkan H. Isikgor, Anand S. Subbiah, Mathan K. Eswaran, Calvyn T. Howells, Aslihan Babayigit, Michele De Bastiani, Emre Yengel, Jiang Liu, Francesco Furlan, George T. Harrison, Shynggys Zhumagali, Jafar I. Khan, Frédéric Laquai, Thomas D. Anthopoulos, Iain McCulloch, Udo Schwingenschlögl, Stefaan De Wolf, (2020) Scaling-up perovskite solar cells on hydrophobic surfaces, Nano Energy

Extra Information

In this work, we explore the underlying reasons for scaling losses of perovskite solar cells, especially for the p-i-n configuration, and have successfully reduced this scaling loss to ~0.9%. With a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms, high-quality PSCs with a PCE of 20.3% for 2 cm2 devices and 19.8% for 6.8 cm2 mini-modules were obtained.

Abstract

Despite impressive power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) reported for lab-scale perovskite solar cells (PSCs), obtaining large-area devices with similar performance remains challenging. Fundamentally, this can largely be attributed to a polarity mismatch between the perovskite-precursor solution and the underlying hydrophobic contact materials, resulting in perovskite films of insufficient quality for scaled devices. Specifically, for p-i-n devices, the commonly used DMF/DMSO co-solvent has a significant polarity mismatch with its underlying hole-transporting layer, PTAA. Here, the role of MAPbI3•solvent adduct interaction with the PTAA surface towards the formation of micro- and nano-scale pinholes is elucidated in detail. Replacing DMSO with NMP in the co-solvent system changes the binding energy profoundly, enabling uniform and dense films over large areas. The PCE of DMF/NMP ink-based devices drops slightly with increasing active device area, from 21.5% (0.1 cm2) to 19.8% (6.8 cm2), in comparison with conventional DMF/DMSO ink. This work opens a pathway towards the scalability of solution-processed perovskite optoelectronic devices.

Keywords

perovskite solar cells scalable large area hidrophobic PTAA substrate binding energy pinholes