Printing High-Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells in High-Humidity Ambient Environment-An In Situ Guided Investigation.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Renewable Energy
• Photovoltaics

Background:

• Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) show promise for renewable energy.
• Scalable manufacturing techniques are crucial for commercializing PSCs.
• Current scalable methods like blade coating lag behind spin coating in efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a scalable, ambient fabrication method for high-performance PSCs.
• To investigate the impact of humidity and solvent dynamics on PSC crystallization.
• To achieve high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in large-area PSCs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an air-knife-assisted coating technique under high relative humidity (55 ± 5%).
• Employed time-resolved UV-vis spectrometry to study solvent removal and crystallization kinetics.
• Investigated the widely used dimethylformamide-dimethyl sulfoxide perovskite precursor system.

Main Results:

• Achieved anti-solvent-free, high-humidity ambient coating of PSCs.
• Demonstrated PCEs of 21.1% for 0.06 cm² and 18.0% for 1 cm² devices.
• Observed hysteresis-free device performance and stability comparable to glovebox-fabricated PSCs.

Conclusions:

• Air-knife-assisted ambient fabrication is a viable scalable technique for high-efficiency PSCs.
• Controlling solvent dynamics and crystallization kinetics in ambient conditions is key to high performance.
• This method holds significant potential for the commercial production of stable and efficient PSCs.