Defect tolerant perovskite solar cells from blade coated non-toxic solvents

The process of crystallization of lead halide perovskites by industrially relevant techniques involving non-toxic solvents is not understood completely and needs improvement. To this date, devices with the highest efficiency are prepared by deposition of the perovskite layer using non-scalable techn...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 6; no. 39; pp. 19085 - 19093
Main Authors Bi, Zhuoneng, Rodríguez-Martínez, Xabier, Aranda, Clara, Pascual-San-José, Enrique, Goñi, Alejandro R., Campoy-Quiles, Mariano, Xu, Xueqing, Guerrero, Antonio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 2018
Subjects
Ammonium
Crystal defects
Crystal structure
Crystallization
Human exposure
Optimization
Organic chemistry
Perovskites
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Photoluminescence
Photons
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaics
Solar cells
Solvents
Spherulites
Supersaturation
Viability
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The process of crystallization of lead halide perovskites by industrially relevant techniques involving non-toxic solvents is not understood completely and needs improvement. To this date, devices with the highest efficiency are prepared by deposition of the perovskite layer using non-scalable techniques, toxic solvents and/or require additional processing steps. In this work, we show that perovskite solar cells can be obtained efficiently in one step by doctor blade. The perovskite film is formed under a supersaturation regime from non-toxic solvents following spherulitic growth. This method results in highly crystalline perovskite films with preferential crystal orientation. Co-local photoluminescence and light-beam induced current experiments show that the generated chemical defects are confined at the boundary of spherulites and do not have a negative effect on the extracted photocurrent. Strikingly, spherulite formation, rather than being detrimental, could lead to better photovoltaic performance in hybrid perovskite films. This is further confirmed in the photovoltaic devices, which were fabricated using non-toxic solvents by doctor blade process, with record efficiencies of 18.0% for MAPbI 3 (MA = methyl ammonium). Moreover, devices with large area (1.53 cm 2 ) fabricated using doctor blade show remarkable efficiencies (14.2%) reinforcing the viability of this solar technology towards industrialization.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/C8TA06771F